Daily Inspiration: Meet Joe Gamez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Gamez.

Hi Joe, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a long-time workout enthusiast. I grew up playing sports (football, track, cross-country, and wrestling), spent a decent amount of time hiking in various areas, and loved climbing anything I could get my hands on. For the majority of my life, I was what most would consider fit, but as adulthood settled in, I fell into a big lull. I put on about 50 lbs over the years, didn’t work out regularly, and struggled with body my body image. I tried going back to the gym on my own, even hired a personal trainer, but I found that I lacked the knowledge and motivation to really get myself back on track. I decided to try CrossFit on a whim. I purchased a Groupon for a nearby gym, fell in love with the workouts, and got my life together.

The full story is way more detailed, but to keep it short, I’ve been extra passionate about my fitness journey since and wanted to share my knowledge, experience, and drive for community with those around me. I decided to branch off and start my own endeavor at the suggestion of a friend. I put pen to paper, mapped out the project, and went all-in on opening my own gym. It’s been a crazy experience and opening a new business during a pandemic with local shutdowns has been challenging, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’m fairly diligent when it comes to researching and mapping out a project. However, the resources for opening up a new business are very fragmented. Every source of the material focuses on a specific step in the process but none of them outline the process in full. What I thought would be a 6-month turn-around turned into a 1 1/2 year project. On top of the updated timeline, I had significant delays with construction, holds from the Small Business Administration (SBA) due to local lockdowns, and unexpected expenses as a result of the delays. The equipment took months instead of weeks to arrive and memberships were slow to start with the risk of Covid looming over the community. I had to budget aggressively for cleaning materials to manage the risk and ended up pushing back a lot of smaller projects in the process. I literally fell into the worst time to open up a gym.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work career started to evolve once I entered the finance industry. I spent the first year or so doing the boring stuff (phone calls, customer service, etc.) but I later moved into small project management and process development. I was working on my master’s in psychology around the same time and ended up moving into training. I started with new hire orientation and training. I eventually moved into our more advanced topics. During that time, I was also coaching at the gym that I had originally started CrossFit. Over time, I really lost interest in the corporate training environment and wanted to really focus on developing people on a more personal level in the fitness industry. I could really see the impact of change in that domain.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
My favorite youth/childhood memory was my time in wrestling. It was the ultimate test of strength, endurance, and grit. There wasn’t any other sport where you could fight with everything you had. It was a strong community of hard-working individuals that really taught me a lot about success and a lot more about failure (and how to deal with it).

Contact Info:

• Email: Staff@CrossFitShokunin.com
• Website: https://crossfitshokunin.com
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