Hidden Gems: Meet Doug Brown of Fitness 48

Today we’d like to introduce you to Doug Brown.

Hi Doug, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
In 2016, I opened my first gym in San Diego, and at the time, we were one of the first training facilities in the area to exclusively offer rental space for independent personal trainers. After 3 years, I along with my family decided to sell the gym to move out of California. I sold the gym at the end of 2019, without even knowing what was coming with Covid.

When we moved to Arizona, I trained my clients at various gyms in the Chandler area. After about 2 years, I decided to open another gym with the same business model – renting the space to other local personal trainers. This became Fitness 48.

Fitness 48 has the benefit of learning experiences from my own time in San Diego. Fitness 48 opened in November of 2022 and is steadily growing. Our mission is to provide Phoenix, Chandler, Tempe, and Gilbert trainers with a clean, modern, and upscale training facility that caters to them and their clients.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Of course not! I don’t think any business has smooth roads, or I’d argue that not enough risk is being taken. A perfect example is that the commercial real estate market is very competitive. Add to that the business destruction that Covid-19 had on gyms, and the vast majority of landlords – in spaces that could reasonably accommodate a gym – were extremely hesitant if they weren’t refusing gym use in their properties. Plenty of space was available, but the landlords were much more against gyms than I would’ve imagined.

That said, with the financial strains – to put it mildly – that Covid-19 had on gyms and ultimately landlords, it made sense. It took nearly a full year to find the right space with someone willing to work with the concept of a gym. Luckily, we were finally given that opportunity and we’re now up and running.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Fitness 48 is a personal training gym that offers self-employed personal trainers – known as independent trainers – a fully-equipped training facility to train their clients. Gyms that rent space to trainers aren’t necessarily difficult to find, but they all offer the same thing – a gym.

Instead of just having a high-quality gym, Fitness 48 goes well beyond to help trainers succeed on their own by offering direct marketing and sales coaching and mentoring. It’s easy enough for us to provide clients to our trainers, but we really focus on the learning aspect so they can build their own businesses as they see fit.

This service we provide solves the most significant issue that independent trainers face – the ability to gain or replace clients as needed, and do so quickly and inexpensively. By learning these fundamental skills, our trainers have the ability to grow their business quickly, maintain a high demand, scale their income, and even start a new business unrelated to the fitness industry. Simply put, no other gym offers the level of education and support we provide our trainers, if they want and need it.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I think that luck by any definition certainly plays a role in life and business, and for me personally, I find that it usually revolves around timing. Further, I think that keeping yourself in a position to capitalize on good luck and reduce the impact of bad luck is very important. I’ve had good and bad luck, just like anyone else. For example, in 2018 while still running at my gym in San Diego, the water main behind my building burst, flooding my gym with a foot of water in a matter of minutes. That’s just bad luck!

However, I was fortunate for several reasons. First, it happened on a Friday in December, a slower time at the gym on average. Second, the city – along with a restoration company – showed up within the hour of its beginning. The workers had the place at least minimally ready to open on Monday morning and were completely restored within about two weeks.

By New Year’s Day, we were right back to normal, and I’d say even better than it was before. Without the help of the people who supported me through that very stressful time, I can’t be sure if I would’ve recovered quickly enough. That’s good luck.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fitness-48.com
• Instagram: @fitness48_studio