BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 56. 

BIRD: Hi there and welcome to Bird Means Business podcast. This week, we have your, my favorite guest in the studio. The one and only Terry Williams.

TERRY WILLIAMS: Oh am I their favorite guest too? 

BIRD: I don't know, that's why I had to change it to my favorite guests I'm not sure. We’ve had some pretty awesome guests. But no, you're pretty awesome, too. 

I'm so excited to talk with you and give everyone the behind the scenes of our launch of our very first business, The League Elite Training Facility, a circuit training warehouse gym here in Houston, Texas. You excited? 

TERRY: Yeah. 

BIRD: It's gonna be good. So before we get into the episode, I want you to imagine something. Imagine having a document that housed all of the strategic planning for your business and that you reviewed every quarter, which helps you be proactive in your business, instead of reactive. Imagine having a financial spreadsheet that projected where your revenue and profit would be in six months or a year or three years. And imagine having conversations with a potential investor or your landlord or even a CPA or attorney, and actually feeling confident with explaining how your business works. Oh, my friend that's what you get with my signature Prove It Plan framework. Prove It Plan is a five-week online course where you'll get my tried and true business plan template with video modules and bonus guides. And you'll interact with me each week, through our weekly Q&A in our private Facebook group. The best part is that you're going to get lifetime access to all of these goods so you can start whenever you need, and also refer back to the material as needed. Module One goes live January 25, and I am so super excited. I have put so much into this new launch of the course and I'm just really excited to show you. I know it's going to be transformational for your business. I want you to know that January is the only time that I plan to have Prove It Plan be live or be accessible this year. So you don't want to miss out. If you know you need a profitable business plan, you're going to love the Prove It Plan framework. Like I said, I've seen Prove It Plan transform so many businesses. And it really just makes me so happy to be able to share this experience with you and to be along your journey in this way. But don't just take my word for it. Here's what Iyana had to say. “I am so happy I was recommended to contact Bird Williams. I thought I knew how to grow my business. But during our time together, Bird touched on so many important factors and not only growing but maintaining a profitable business and scaling my business to the next level. I now have a rock-solid plan to run a successful and profitable business.” And that is what I want for you my friend. So if you have any questions at all about Prove It Plan, do not hesitate to DM me on Instagram. I'm @heybirdwilliams on Instagram. Or you can just shoot me an email, it's Hello@birdwilliams.com. 

All right. So let's just go ahead and jump into the episode. All right, Mr. Williams, let's talk about what it looked like to launch The League. Y’all, The League was our first baby. We're gonna kind of give you the pre-story of how it came to be. Then we'll talk about what our year-long launch process looked like. We'll share some fun facts and memories from launch day, and even talk a little bit about the year after. What it looked like after we launched our business. We're going to share major takeaways along the way and really just really try to pull you into the story so that as you launch and grow your business, you can kind of see how it works and what it looks like in real life. Cool? All right, let's jump in. 

So, the pre-story, how it came to be. What's your perspective there? How did we get to launching our gym?

TERRY: Yeah, so we had two very different backgrounds. I was here in Houston, Texas, studying for my Master's in Health and Human Performance. I had the dream of being a strength and conditioning coach. Was hopping around between five or six different gyms here in Houston, some of which I was doing personal training at. Others I was doing any form of group exercise imaginable from kickboxing to spin class to boot camp. And at a couple of them, I built new group exercise formats and programs. I was utterly exhausted, pouring all my time into this industry. And I loved what I did, but not necessarily where I did it, needed something new. I kind of felt a passion for being a gym owner someday. But I was like, I don't want to do the business stuff. I want to do the fitness stuff. I want to be in the room with the people writing and programming the workouts and doing the relational component of it, like being a coach. And you were in New York City during that season on Wall Street. You loved logistics. You loved business. You loved transactions. You had a whole different set of interests and skills. And you were like, why wait? Why wait to launch that gym? I was like, oh well you know, I really love this component of it but not all components of it, and I gotta figure that part out. And you're like, you know what, I'll do the parts that you don't want to do because that's the stuff that I love to do. And then from where I sit, the way I see it, we kind of just became this dream team, where I was fitness, you were business, and together we gave birth to a fitness business.

BIRD: Yes, I love that so much. So I love what you said in terms of, you were doing you were working all over, Houston at these different studios. And another thing I know you've said in the past is that you wanted to do fitness a certain way. You were training with athletes, pro athletes in the offseason and wanted to introduce certain fitness regimens and programming. But it wasn't really received well at these different studios, and so you wanted to do your own format. Tell us a little bit about PAC(K) training and how that came about.

TERRY: Yeah, so I was in these gyms that had awesome, world-class equipment that I didn't care about, honestly. I wanted functional movement. I wanted peoples’ bodies to be their machines because when I was working with professional athletes, it was kettlebells, battle ropes, tire flips. Some stuff didn't even need equipment. We were running sprints. We're doing hand-eye reaction time training and things like that. And I really didn't want to be in a place with a bunch of machines. A bunch of clunky heavy machines, taking up floor space that could be prime movement space. And so, in this interest in functional training, I was like, I love fitness, but I don't necessarily love the lane I'm driving in in fitness. And so we developed PAC(K) training. PAC(K) is an acronym for power, aerobics, and circuit training. And the K in the word PAC(K) just stands for our mindset and our mantra, which is “Keep Moving”. And so the idea is that when I'm training professional athletes, we always do a power training sequence, an aerobic phase, and then a circuit. Circuit training is my absolute favorite form of training. And so then a reminder to the people who aren't necessarily pro athletes, but are in the gym where they are trained and being led by coaches who work with them is, keep moving. You don't have to be the fastest or the strongest in the room. But you got to keep your heart rate elevated, your muscles activated. And so, PAC(K) training became this system by which we could literally download the same processes that we use with elite athletes and make it accessible to the everyday average person, even if it's their first time working out because it had levels to it that were welcoming and inclusive to everybody. And so now we got a whole bunch of people in the room just swinging kettlebells, working battle ropes, pushing sleds, flipping tires. Feels incredible.

BIRD: Yes, and that is exactly what I want to hone in on, is the unique way we were solving a problem when we introduced PAC(K) training. And I will say it was initially STAC(K) training. It was initially a different acronym. But we've evolved it over time because remember we as entrepreneurs, as brand builders, we’re adaptable, right? And we started to find that we really needed to simplify it and we went from STAC(K) training to PAC(K) training. But what we offered was something that was very unique. Because of Terry's background with professional athletes in the offseason, seeing everyday Joe's wanting to work out like them or look like them. He was like, well how can I modify this for everyday people? And that's how it was born. So as you're thinking about your business. When you think about it, we talk about it a lot, you're solving a problem in your business, right? That's why your business exists. So, the problem can't be as simple as people need a gym to go to, people need to be fit. No dive deeper. What are the options available in the market? And where are there gaps and holes? Well, that's what Terry identified. He said people want to train with more functional training, circuit training. And how can we do that differently? And that's how PAC(K) training was born. So I just wanted to note that for all of you who are building your businesses and trying to differentiate yourself in the market. Especially for those who are in very saturated markets, the bigger or more defined the problem is that you're solving, the more success your business will have. Okay? 

TERRY: That's a great point. Can I just jump in on that?

BIRD: Yeah.

TERRY:  So if you're not solving a problem, your business just can't win. You gotta be able to solve somebody's problem. And I'll say also to what Ashley was saying there. At that time in 2013, when I was noticing was there was like two ways you could work out. You could go to like the big chain gyms where there's really affordable membership and then no guidance. And then you get in, and there's hundreds of people in the building and everybody's got their headphones in doing their own thing. It's like isolation, even in a crowd. 

BIRD: Or you don't even know what to do. You’re just walking around.

TERRY:  Yeah. What do I do? So I'll just get on this treadmill, right? Or you could get some training, and then it's one on one, and then it’s a super expensive thing. So you got roped into a cheap membership and now you're spending way too much because you need to know what to do. Or you could go to a functional training gym and be hit over the head at a crazy price point. There was no middle of the road, we're gonna give you some functional training, and some guidance, at a price that's affordable. And so in that way we did a little bit more problem-solving. And then also speaking to the format name. I love how you brought up STAC(K) training for PAC(K) training. So, it was a simplification, not in the word stack, but in what that acronym stood for. We found that people would be like, “What does that stand for again?” And when we explained it, you could just see in their eyes, like this is overwhelming. It's too much information. And so simplifying was another way that we were able to really increase our reach in the market, and really connect with people in a real way. 

BIRD: Absolutely. Well, a good way to convey what we are doing more concisely and hit the mark stronger with PAC(K) training. I love it. I’ll also share in terms of the pre-story. So he mentioned that I was in New York. I've shared, I know it was Episode 54. I talked about how to choose an entrepreneurial endeavor. and I kind of give my background with being there working on Wall Street and doing really great. But not being at all fulfilled by what I was doing and deciding that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, through answering these 15 questions, which you actually get the journal prompts for if you listen to Episode 54. Answered the questions. Realized I wanted to go into entrepreneurship. I actually tried a different endeavor with my mom that didn't work out, but it got me to move from New York to Houston. And that's when Terry and I had gotten back together and gotten married. And I realized he wanted to launch this gym but just didn't really want to do all the not-fun stuff, which for me it was fun. And that's how it came to be. So I remember it was one Christmas. I don't exactly remember what prompted it other than just me being like, honestly, probably close to depression. I didn't realize it then. But in hindsight, I remember just sleeping all day and just trying to sleep until Terry got home, because I was in this extreme place of going from New York investment banker on Wall Street, to married at home with no job. And it was really hard for me. And one day it was like, look I gotta do something. We gotta get something going. Let's just build a model. And so when I say build a model, it was mostly just a financial spreadsheet. And what it did is it outlined what revenue we thought we could bring in over a year. And I carried it on for two more years. We kind of see the three-year projections, and also expenses. And the beauty of having Terry, because I didn't know much about the gym industry, you know, was that he knew all those inputs. He could say, well, we could sell this package for this much. We could price it here. Of course, we did some more research on all the different things, but especially when it came to expenses. How much equipment would cost? How much flooring would cost? What would we need at the front desk? All of these questions, he being in the industry for so long, he either knew the answer or we could call a friend or he could go to the gyms he worked out and like look at what they were doing. We could figure it out. So I say that to say, if you have no background in what you're doing, it's going to be especially important that you connect with those who are in the industry who are willing to talk with you or share insights or information. We had a friend who had a warehouse gym, who was very generous with letting us see his waivers and his different contracts that he would have members sign. And asking him questions about his processes and the equipment he's gotten. And so that was huge for us. So again, just trying to really gear into what you will need to think about as you're launching your business. But that document, that business model that we created really helped us see like, okay. We'll take this long to become profitable, and this is how much we would kind of need for startup costs. And so, I say this a lot, but your financials really make it real, right? It takes the numbers out of your head in terms of what you think it's gonna cost, and you put it into a spreadsheet or on paper to say, this is actually what the numbers shake out to be. And that financial spreadsheet, the same structure, of course, I've improved it over the years. But that is a part of the Prove It Plan framework. So there are four pillars in Prove It Plan. Its foundation, financial, operations, and marketing. And then the fifth week of the course, module five is where we pull it all together. And so in that second module, financial, that's when we dive into this exact spreadsheet where you'll be able to download it yourself. I'll show you how to input your revenue and expenses and see your profit and project your financials for three years. So, again, it was just really pivotal and the reason I bring it up is because I was recently on a consultation call with a young man who wants to launch an apparel company, and he asked like man, what is the first thing I need to do. And there's so many things to do as you're launching a business. It can seem really overwhelming and I thought back to this moment. I was like, what was the first thing I did? I can almost remember being in our living room and going through all of this. And we put the numbers down, and we really tried to see where that would shake out. And I think that is a great first step, if you're really trying to see, will it be a viable business, how will it really work, really starting with your financials.

TERRY: Yeah, I think that's a great point because I think people get really wound up on their dream and it's great to have a big dream. But you got to have those logistical pieces in place. I talked to a lot of people who are aspiring to launch something and they want to talk about their colors, their logo, their social media handle they want, buying the web domain, and maybe sometimes about the problem that it will solve. But then when you ask a question like, okay, great. So how will that survive a financially turbulent market like 2020 has brought us to? And it takes actually finding out if it's viable. It takes understanding the cost of equipment, how much investment capital is needed. What are the monthly expenses really going to be, not what you've imagined them to be? And your dream is great. You believe you're going to sell 2 million pairs of these really fuzzy socks, and that's cool. And if it takes all 2 million of those sales to make this thing profitable, probably not gonna work. It's not go double platinum or flop. You got to figure out what really makes the engine go.

BIRD: Yes, I love that you brought that up. And that is why I leave marketing to the end because I get that all the time, same thing. Here's my logo. Here's my social media handle. But I'm like, well let me see your financial projections or what are your standard operating procedures, and it’s just like, blank stare. And so we go through all of that in Prove It Plan. Operations is a big one, especially when it comes to scale. A lot of entrepreneurs say, “Well it's just me in the beginning. I'm just trying to survive. I'm just trying to make this work.” And that's fine. That's how it can feel. But what happens when you're booked out? What happens when you sell out? I actually had a strategy session, several months ago with a young lady who launched a beautiful candle company during quarantine. And she sold out like day one, and then restocked and sold out again. And so, the great thing about operations, when you key into that, is that you're able to see, how can I scale this? How can I take it to the next level? What systems need to be in place? What can I automate that is going to be a game-changer? Not only for you to scale. But also for you to have some peace of mind, for you to know that to really increase your business operations isn't going to kill you, because you have a plan in place for that. So I love that you brought that up. 

So pre-story, Terry's working in gyms all over Houston. Ashley was living in New York, decides she wants to be an entrepreneur. Leaves her job, comes down to Houston. We get married. I begin to realize, okay, this is something he really wants to do. He doesn't know how to do it, but I can help him. And we begin the process of launching The League. So now that we've kind of shared about how we got there, let's talk about what the year-long, launch process looked like. Do you want to start or? 

TERRY: Sure. 

BIRD: What happened after we built that model?

TERRY: So we built a model. We had a good understanding of what it was going to cost to do this thing. And we did our little bootstrapping and whatever we could do. But then we needed finances. We needed investment capital. And so we raised a little bit of capital. We had some folks that were like, “Oh, no thanks. But thanks for sharing the idea with me.” We had some folks who were like, “I’m in. I'm excited. I think I'm able to do a little something.” I will say our biggest investor who committed, unfortunately, pulled out of the deal. And so very close to launch day, when I had just walked away from my day job, we had secured a lease on a space, we were starting to order equipment, we had just announced the actual launch day and like people were getting excited. We all of a sudden didn't have a good chunk, like a big percentage of the money that we thought we were raising and that we were relying on and it almost looked impossible. We had to battle through that. That would be my biggest memory from the year leading up to launch because it was just such a big like do or die moment. We’re either really crazy or we’re geniuses. And we're about to figure it out. And that's actually something that somebody said to us too when we were in the process.

BIRD: Yeah, so I get a lot of questions around raising capital and I actually did an entire podcast episode on it. It's actually Bird Means Business podcast episode 8. It's “How to Raise Funding for Your Business”. I go into more detail. But that started with us actually developing a business plan. So we took that business model that I created. And again, that was a piece of our business plan. But we also needed to understand our foundation, our purpose, our mission, our vision statement, our team, and how that would be structured. We were really thinking about it in terms of what questions will investors have. We knew that we couldn't launch a gym with the money we had in savings. So we were going to need to have investors. So we developed our business plan, and we didn't just stop there. We actually sent it to my investment banking director on Wall Street. Her name was Sarah Dodds She's amazing. She looked at it and reviewed it and redlined it, you know, marked it up. And it was so good to have that feedback because then we were able to be much more, we were ready for those investor conversations. We weren't having to, you know, stumble over our words because she'd already kind of like helped us really vet this business plan that we were creating. It helped us think about our business in a much more real way. Again, that's why I think business plans are so important because it helps you prove your business to yourself, hence the name Prove It Plan.

TERRY: Also let me call this out too. I think learning was a big thing in that year, leading up to launch, as we were planning. Because that same person you just mentioned, your former director who was kind of a mentor to you, made a suggestion to you that was identical to what my mentor suggested to me, in regards to the name of business. We had this name we loved. But that was corny like the world wasn't gonna love it. It's so ironic that both the biggest voice of wisdom in Ashley's life at the time and the biggest voice of wisdom in my life at the time, both made the same suggestion is how we landed on our name. Now, this is separate from the plan, different note, of course. Don't want to take us on a tangent, but I just want to say to anybody who's in that process, you absolutely got to welcome some wisdom, because there's some things that you don't know. And you never know what you don't know.

BIRD: That is so true. So so true, that was huge to have those voices in our life. So we got a business plan together and then we basically used that business plan to create our investor presentation. We basically added on a transaction summary page to the investor presentation that really detailed what it would look like in terms of the debt or equity offering and all of the details that have to do with that. And again, that's in episode 8 of Bird Means Business podcast. So we created the business plan. We began to talk to investors. I detail in that episode again how we had them sign NDAs. How we made a list of those that we thought would be most likely to invest to least likely so that we weren't asking all 20 people at the same time and getting too many investors, and on and on. So we went through that process. But as we were trying to solidify our investment capital, we were also getting with a real estate agent to look at properties and trying to nail down the best space, based on what we needed. And looking at all the equipment, like I said, we had that friend who was in the gym industry who was helping us think through what we needed. But Terry had a lot of experience with that too, so he kind of already knew. And you know just kind of getting all the other details in terms of what it would look like to actually launch our business. And, yes, there were so many bumps along the way, not only with the investor like Terry mentioned. But probably a week before we launched, we had a big issue with one of our big pieces of equipment, it was a rig. We thought it would be a freestanding rig that we would just put together and it would stand on its own. But when we opened up the packaging, it needed to be mounted to a wall. So, thank God for Elbert Joseph, my dad, who is like, apparently some kind of engineer and had all these tools, and measuring all this stuff out, and going to the, what was that factory we went to? Like some kind of steel factory?

TERRY: Yeah, we went to a hardware place where they had to custom cut some steel beams to help us get it up there.

BIRD: Exactly. It was pretty intense. But we got it up like days before the launch. We had so many issues with our flooring, but we had so many great friends who came in and helped us lay the turf. For example, when the turf came, it was like 750 pounds. We had no idea. And the rule, which we also didn't know, was that we had to get it off the truck. The driver wasn't responsible for that. So here we are trying to get 700 pounds of rolled-up turf off the truck and into the gym. Just a lot of fun things like that. So when it comes to preparing for your launch, make sure you take all of that into account. 

One tip is that a lot of times when you negotiate a lease agreement, the landlord might give you a month or two, I don't want to call it for free. I can't remember the term off the top of my head, but they will allow you to come in and not pay rent, for at least a month, so that you can get all this ironed out get everything set up. Because you're not actually generating revenue then, because you're not open, but you're able to kind of set up ahead of time. So you can negotiate that. It's pretty typical, at least a month, that will help you a whole lot. Any other kind of tips in terms of preparing for launch day?

TERRY: Yeah, one big thing that I heard you say, without saying was, be ready for surprises. As you talked about all the things that happened that were like, oops we didn't account for that. We need to figure this out now. It's like in the moment we have a real problem that's gonna cost us more time, or more money, or we need more help. Like we need people to get 750 pounds worth of material off of a truck, right now, before the truck leaves, that we are responsible for, apparently. And so, I think one big thing for anybody who's in that season of preparing to launch is be ready for surprises and be very resourceful. Have your people, your team that you call in for help as you need it. 

BIRD: Your tribe.

TERRY: Yeah, exactly. That's huge. 

BIRD: Yeah, I would also say be ready to sacrifice. I remember it being Terry's birthday weekend. So we launched The League on December 1, 2013. Terry's birthday is on November 27, so the weekend before. It was kind of a disaster. Like I said, we had some issues with our flooring and like dirt on the floor before laying the flooring. And so we had to power wash the ground. And what happened is there were divots in the ground, so there were these buckets of water that we had to scoop up. And we didn't have enough towels and we were like taking red cups and trying to scoop them up. And I just remember looking over at Terry. It was cold. Our fingers were like hurting, or at least mine were. And looking over at him and saying, “I am so sorry, Babe. Like what do you want to do for your birthday this weekend.” And his response was, “This”. That’s what he said. He was like, “This is what I want to be doing. I want to be preparing for the launch of our gym.” And it wasn't glamorous or glorious, but this is where he wanted to be because he was willing to sacrifice for it. We both were. 

So as you're looking to launch, there will be surprises. There will be crazy scary stuff going on. Just be here for it. Be willing to sacrifice. And also think about the timing. So think about the industry that you're launching in. Think about your audience and what they need. We strategically launched in December, because we wanted to have space to work out all the kinks before the big January rush. You probably know that a lot of people are like “New year. New me. I'm gonna get my fitness goals, I'm going to start strong on January 1.” And so we wanted to make sure we weren't launching when all that was happening and we were able to work out the kinks ahead of time. So that's why we chose December. But then we also had to be strategic with Terry's job. I believe it was November 1 that he told his different employers that he would no longer be there and we had the website set up and everything and ready to launch after he told them, cause of course we didn't want to launch this business and it gets out that he was starting his own gym and all this. So he gave them more than two weeks’ notice in advance and all of that. So just think about all those pieces again as it comes to your launch date.

TERRY: Yeah. And how will you handle that, right? So, like, it's customary to give two weeks’ notice but to that example, from what Bird just shared there. For me, compassion is a really big thing. So I was like, I'm gonna reach out an entire month in advance, and communicate my willingness to be here throughout that time if needed to help train great people so that y'all can move forward strong, as I now exit. 

BIRD:  Right, and Terry, he won't say this, but he was like, the top trainer at all these locations. So it was like these places were losing their top talent. And so that's why he wanted to give them extra time which is super admirable of you to just really give them a lot of time to be able to prepare for that transition. 

So, let's talk about launch day, and how that looked. My biggest takeaway is just that, first of all, there was such a huge turnout. It was wild, I mean hundreds of people. We made it really fun. We had a DJ. We had games. We had food. We had different prizes and stuff. And I mean it was a huge turnout, people coming from Dallas, San Antonio, just to support. And I will say, and I've mentioned it on the podcast before, but it had a lot to do with Terry's generosity, for years on Twitter. This is when Twitter was at least really big for us. And he was just giving free content, free fitness tips, for so long that he had amassed this huge following. So when he launched his gym business, so many people wanted to support, even people who couldn't attend the gym because they lived in San Antonio and Dallas. So, it meant a lot to us. We felt very supported. But, on the other side of that, can you guess how many people signed up at our launch, which of course we had you know our computers set up. 

TERRY: Drum roll, please. 

BIRD: Six. Six whole people signed up, and that is not what we projected. And we were just so devastated, you know like, oh my gosh. I mean not in the sense of like we give up. But just more of like, whoa, that was a lot less than what we thought. And ironically we went to that same friend who had helped us, give us feedback, the other friend who had the gym, here in Houston.

TERRY: He was like, “Yeah, I sold two on my launch.” 

BIRD: We were like okay.

TERRY: He normalized it. Now I'll say for me. I get what you're saying you're like, it was devastating. For me, it was more like the motivation I needed. Like, oh, it takes that many people showing up to get that kind of launch? And then attached to that, for anybody who's hearing that, who for you that feels like man that would be devastating to me. I want to say this too. The League now is seven years strong. It's a known institution of life change in Houston, Texas. Oprah Winfrey Network, Huffington Post, have covered things regarding The League. Like it doesn't take a big launch day to have a big business. And I want nobody to lose their firepower, because it didn't start the way that they had envisioned it starting, right? Because think about when you were born. You were a baby. You relied on everybody for help. Could do nothing for yourself. You could do nothing but eat food, poop, and cry. Look at you now. A whole grown human out here, making decisions, about to launch a business. Don't despise humble beginnings. 

BIRD: Yes, yes. I mean it taught us so much. It helped me really rethink our numbers and I think that's why it impacted me because I'm looking at the numbers like, “Oh man. If that’s what we get for launch, then we gotta rethink what we're gonna do in January”, and on and on. But that next year, it really took off. 

So, in terms of like the year after phase, now. I remember the next day. So we launched on a Sunday. Monday we had our first day of classes, and I remember that the man who came. 

TERRY: One student!

BIRD: One student in our 5:30 AM class.

TERRY:  It was 5:00 AM back at that time.

BIRD: I thought it was 5:00 AM. Yeah, 5:00 AM class. Not only was it one guy. It was freezing cold, and he threw up after the class. I remember thinking, “Oh my gosh, this is gonna be fun.” 

TERRY: Like are we doing too much? Are our classes too hard? Yeah, it was a lot to figure out. 

BIRD: And I can almost remember every single person. Nick came to a class that day. Our other friend, Paul Howard, came to the class that day. Like I can really remember because it meant so much. So it's important if your friend’s launching a business, to just support, because it means so much in those early days. 

But anyway, it was crazy. So we had those humble beginnings, but the gym took off. 2014, the gym just soared. I mean we were on all kinds of like TV stations, doing stuff. 

TERRY: We have actually never spent a single penny on TV time, but were covered by the local affiliates for every major network. NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox. It was crazy. 

BIRD: Shout out to Nayla Cantu. If you're listening, we love you girl. 

TERRY: Yes, she worked for the local CBS affiliate at that time. And I mean, it would be wild. She'd come through, get a great workout and be like, “Hey we want to feature you on such and such show next week.” It was like, this is wild. 

BIRD: And this was a college friend of ours who was a TV producer, and just put us on. And when we were on that show so often, I think was the Deborah Duncan show in particular. Other stations and other shows would see and would want us on. So that's how we were able to be on all these.

TERRY: Right, I think it organically became, and this is good for anybody who's like, how can I get my name out there. Forget hustling for it. Be good at what you do. Provide a quality service. And if somebody comes along and shows love and grace, receive that with humility. We were not featured on TV so much because we're just so incredible and have all the connections. I think it organically happened because we were on one network a few times. The other networks start to see it as like a competition thing like oh we need to feature them. And so we were like okay we'll ride that wave. Like, let's, let's go. 

BIRD: Yeah, it was a huge blessing, I mean we also just did so many things in terms of being at festivals and events. We kind of worked ourselves into the ground a bit. We were definitely pretty burnt out. I remember. I'll never forget that April through August, we did not have a free moment in a weekend. And by that I mean, Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night Sunday morning. It was literally, literally nonstop for all those months. And I remember saying to Terry, we will never do that again. We will never book ourselves that crazy. We can't do that. And we began to be very strategic about our planning our life and events. 

TERRY: Right, because life doesn't stop after you launch. You gotta do all that goes into running that business. And you're still gonna have friends who have weddings, friends who have baby showers. Holidays are still happening. Like, be prepared for that. 

BIRD: Yeah, so that year was wild. But man we did really great. We made six figures in revenue that year, which, like to go from six people at a launch to six figures in revenue. We hadn't projected either, right? We didn't predict to just get six people. But we also didn't predict to have our revenues really take off, how they did. So it was huge. And I attribute so much to our success to having had a business plan where we really thought through what our business looked like in totality. Really thought through how everything would weave together and have it vetted by someone that kind of had gone before us.

So anything else you want to share about the year after before we get into some of the major takeaways? 

TERRY: Yeah, let me jump back real quick to launch day. One of my favorite pieces about launch day was Ronald C. Green, Houston City Controller, coming in, and officially presenting a plaque of proclamation. The City of Houston officially recognizing the birth of The League, making that day a special day. That just meant so much, and I say it humbly, but that was mind-blowing because it wasn't announced. It wasn't something we knew was even happening. He just walks in, in between people playing games and enjoying the party and engaging in whatever activities we had for the day. And he's coming fresh out of a Texans game and has his son with him, and just like a super family man. And he’s like, “Hey, I want to give y’all this, and let's take a photo with it.” That was amazing. 

BIRD: That was really special, yeah. 

TERRY: That year after, biggest takeaways. Definitely honor the grind. It's gonna take a lot out of you. But do what you got to do in practicing self-care so that you don't slide into burnout. I don't wish that on anybody. Definitely be patient. And don't ever stop believing in your ideas. Before you launch your business, you just believe in it, there's nothing that can stop you from believing in it.  People tell you, that's a silly idea. No, you're destined, determined, you're a dreamer. And then you launch it. And you're like, “Okay, we're financially inside out.” Don't let that be a moment where you stop believing in your dream. It's gonna turn around and you got to really see through the tougher times, and believe that you'll get there. 

BIRD: And I would say really key into the people who are coming. Get surveys. Get feedback. Make it better, and be adaptable in that way. I love what Terry said about don't stop believing in your ideas. That's so true. And also, listen to how you should tweak your ideas, cause we had our idea of  STAC(K) training, for example. But as it came to communicating that to our audience, our clients, it was better to make it PAC(K) training. So we were willing to say okay that idea wasn't perfect. Let's move it to PAC(K) training and it's so much more streamlined and better. So be open and adaptable. It's a huge quality I think entrepreneurs should have.

TERRY: Ask people why you suck. Not that you word it like that. But we used to stress, remember Ashley, about what questions we put on the survey. Is it about how clean the bathrooms are, how well the classes are instructed? How this and that works, they want different hours? And really ultimately it was like, how can we better serve you? Because when people get honest with you about that they, then you know, the recipe to win. 

BIRD: Right. And think about what you want when you go places. We had a gym. At our gym, we have feminine protection products because like, how much does it suck to go to the gym and need that, and don't have it? We also have hair scrunchies for girls. And I know these are like girly things but. Like, how does it feel whenever you get to the gym and you don't have a hair scrunchie to pull your hair up? We have that for people. Just thinking about little tweaks. Once a client said, “y’all have like good toilet paper. You don't buy the cheap toilet paper.” 

TERRY: Yeah, she was like, “You get the kind of toilet paper that you would have in your own home.” 

BIRD: And it is the toilet paper we have in our own home. 

TERRY: Notice, these are all special things we have for the ladies. Fellows, we ain’t got nothing special for you. Okay. Like, if you got to throw up in the middle of the workout, then you can step outside for that. 

BIRD: Yes. 

TERRY: Okay, this is getting gross.

BIRD: Yeah. 

TERRY: No more puke references. People do not puke when they come to The League, okay. It's happened like twice.

BIRD: Well, more than that, but yeah, it's not a common thing. But just think about what you want from businesses that you take part of and do that for your own business, as those special touches. That's a part of your marketing. 

So let's jump into some major takeaways. Wanna kick it off?

TERRY:  Yeah, two major takeaways from me. One, love people well. And, two, know your core competencies. So loving people well for me that's, okay you have a business, you serve people, you do whatever you say that you do. Whatever service you are professing to provide, you're doing that work. But then how do you actually making sure that your customer's needs are coming first and being met? Do that. Do that homework on your own time. Come away with some answers to that and really live into that.

Then core competencies. So I was thinking about how I love fitness and Ashley loves business. Together we do a fitness business and how that's kind of informed a reframing of how I see everything in terms of startup since then. So, I'm in formation, with a new group of partners on a really great thing that we're doing with some mindset coaching stuff. Can't wait till I can share more about that. But we had a really important conversation about everybody's role on the team. And I remember just being really abundantly clear and wanting to express what I can be relied on for and what I should not be relied on for. And I was like, I love language and people and culture and branding. I do not love Excel spreadsheets. Therefore, if it's needed and I got to take one for the team, I'm happy to help and support in that role. But don't count on me for leadership with that. I'm not going to be the CEO of spreadsheets in this joint. And the company's better for it because I'm not. I have more joy. I feel better about my efficiency. I carry more confidence in what I do because I'm owning what I'm supposed to own. And I'm allowing somebody else who's good in that role to perform that role. And so I think about like in sports right like a quarterback is always gonna get so much love because a quarterback, typically is like your guy with six-pack abs and he can really sling the rock and he's like the star of the show. He can't do any of that without the O line, these big chunky unsexy men who have to protect him so he's able to throw the ball. And I think the same thing happens in business-like, we have to honor core competencies because in building a team, there's different positions needed to be able to play the game and win the game. Right, that's kind of a masculine example. But ladies, #girlboss, right? I'm speaking as a husband who's proud of his girl boss wife. Ladies, you got that lipstick line, or you got that law firm. You're a hairdresser, or you're doing tax preparation services. Notice I'm putting all that on the same playing field. That's your dream. You run in your lane. Live out your purpose. Now, what if you are the best hairdresser in the state. But people don't know about that because you need better marketing processes? What if you're just the best at what you do, but you can't be the best at everything? It doesn't mean that you're deficient, you're flawed, you're gonna fail. It simply means, hire people onto your team that play the position you don't, so that all positions on the field are being played, so that you can win the game. 

BIRD: Yes, I love that so much. And I hope that encourages a lot of entrepreneurs out there who are like, it's just me right now. I don't have the capacity to have a virtual assistant or a marketing manager or whatever it might be. Well, it's okay. You plan for that and you prioritize your growth over time. You don't have to do this alone. And I think that's the biggest takeaway, is that you can do this in community. You can get around people who, I love to put myself around people who have gone further than me, so I can learn from them.

TERRY: That’s essential. Don't say that and just keep moving. This is your podcast. I don't want to interrupt you ever. But that's essential and I hope people take note of that. 

BIRD: Yeah, it's super important to put yourself around people who are smarter, who are wiser, who make more money, who've done things better, so that you can go up to their level. So I love those takeaways, Babe.  And then I will say mine, and I know I talked about it a lot, but it's just having the business plan, I think was huge. What did you think about the business plan and how it impacted our business?

TERRY: Well for me, our dynamic is that you had the business background. I like understood the business of the fitness industry, and had absolutely no desire to like build out a business plan, right? Like you were saying I could, like, “Oh, let's plug in this price point or let's understand this process or let's do this for scheduling maybe.” But you were like, “I'm a superstar in Excel spreadsheets. I love actually taking in information, logging it in a meaningful way, and analyzing the data so we can make informed decisions going forward.” So I looked at the business plan process as something that's absolutely essential. And absolutely not my position, right? Like if I'm gonna be a quarterback, I can't be the wide receiver too. And so that's why I relied on you, your smarts, your knowledge, your background, to be able to have education as to how I walked through that business plan. How do I implement something that I don't feel innately equipped to bring into this business? I think that that's something like, if your business is devoid of a business plan like, get it quick. Not to just go on a tangent, but I think it's just important. I want to drive it home. We have new builds in our neighborhood. There are homes that are still being built. On my morning walk sometimes, I'll walk into a house that's just a frame. So it's just like the wood, but there's no brick yet. It's like a foundation and some wood. And your business plan is kind of like that frame like you need a blueprint. I can dream up the most awesome interior design and open spaces, high ceilings, big windows, what's the view going to look like. None of that happens without the wood that was set up first, that nobody sees when the house is completely built. 

BIRD: Yeah, I love that analogy of a business plan being a blueprint. The idea that contractors don't go to a plot of land and start just winging it. They have a plan. An architect has gone before them and thoughtfully planned out what should happen next so that they can get to work and be efficient. And that's what Prove It Plan helps you do. It helps you land the logistics and the structure, the framework of your business. And it helps you go further faster. You don't have to go around Googling what an LLC versus an S-corp. And how should I think about marketing strategies? And how should I develop standard operating procedures? Well, all of that is inside the program. So you're able to go further, faster, and have a very solid foundation. 

I'm so glad that you were on the show and that we got to kind of share some behind-the-scenes of our launch of The League, which is our baby business, which we're so proud of and so grateful to be able to steward. If y'all have any questions about Prove It Plan or even just general questions about launching or growing your business, DM me. It's @heybirdwilliams on Instagram. Or you can shoot me an email at Hello@birdwilliams.com. As always, thank you so much for tuning into Bird Means Business podcast and for subscribing on Apple Podcasts. Make sure that you tell every entrepreneur you know about this episode so that they can get some of these tips and insights on what it looks like to launch a business, and do great with their business launch as well. Awesome. I will talk to you all next week. Have a good one. 

TERRY: Later.