Partnering With EXOS at CrossFit For Glory

by Josh Martin, Two-Brain Mentor and Owner of CrossFit For Glory
Just the other day I was talking to Josh Price (the red-bearded wonder who trains all of our new mentors), and we started talking about the way that he makes decisions for his business. He has some very specific questions that allow him and his team to be consistent in this procedure: 
 

1. Does it fit our values? 
2. Does it fit our mission and vision? 
3. Does it help our best clients?
4. Does it make us give us a new strategic advantage or give us a differentiator? 
5. Does it make us more profitable?

 
These questions are answered in order and if there isn’t a ‘yes’ for all of them, then the proposal is cast aside or revamped at a later time. 
 
We’ve had an in-house partner named EXOS that provides Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine services for about 15 months now and I’d like to tell you how it came to be and the benefits we’ve realized in that time.
 
While I didn’t have Josh Price’s exact decision-making criteria written down, the benefit of hindsight tells me that I approached this proposal in very similar fashion: working alongside EXOS definitely fit with our mission, vision, and values. We also knew that our best clients would love what they brought to the table. Strategic advantage? 100% – we intentionally talk about them with every client who comes in for a no-sweat intro. As for profitability – yes, its been good in this sense for both companies. 
 
My journey to becoming a coach started over 16 years ago. Thanks to a firm foundation by my early mentors, I’ve always had a good amount of clarity for what I wanted my facility to be: namely, a one-stop shop for all things health and fitness related. I never want someone to have to leave our building for anything related to wellness. 
 
As it turns out, my very first mentor (Jeff Sassone) went on to become the president of EXOS (formerly Athlete’s Performance) in Arizona. They have really set a standard of excellence in the service that they provide that I’ve long admired. A couple years ago Jeff and I reconnected, and after coming by our facility we began exploring a partnership between my gym and EXOS. They wanted to test out a different type of physical therapy and sports medicine practice; one that was not housed in an EXOS facility. 
 
In January of 2018, they began seeing patients within the walls of my gym. To say that it has been a tremendous blessing would be an understatement. Their head PT that works at our location, Jim Godin, has not only been the very definition of a true partner, he’s also become a great friend and mentor to me. 
 
I know that many gym owners have considered the pros and cons of partnership agreements, so I wanted to highlight the benefits that we’ve realized in our partnership with EXOS:
 

1. Increased perceived value from potential clients: I can’t count the number of times a client’s eyes lit up when I talked to them about us having a PT under our roof. I know some gym owners are still battling the ‘CrossFit is dangerous’ objection – this nixes that completely.
   
2. Increased Length of Engagement (LEG): full disclosure – this is tough to measure and attribute solely to one change because so many factors can impact your retention. Having said that, I feel confident in saying that we’ve kept people we’d have otherwise lost if not for being able to send them right over to EXOS. Let’s face it – injuries are going to happen. When they do, and a client goes to another provider who doesn’t know, like, and trust YOU as the coach, they are likely to hear “you really shouldn’t be doing CrossFit…it’s dangerous.” Being able to keep them in-house while they heal, where the PTs have already built rapport simply by seeing them each day, is an absolute game changer.
   
3. Monthly recurring rental income: we intentionally opted NOT to do a % revenue share simply because we didn’t want there to be an inferred conflict of interest. Having a rental income from a long-standing, reputable company, for our business provides another stream of revenue and bolsters our long term stability.
   
4. Collaborative Education Opportunities for Staff: like I’ve said many times, EXOS knows their stuff. And they are more than happy to share. Educational opportunities, both on-site at our gym and digitally online, have been offered to our entire staff. This has allowed us to level up the service that we provide to our clients while also strengthening a common language so that we can have a seamless relationship between coach and PT.
   
5.    Bridge the Gap from Rehab to Performance: often, when a client/athlete has gone through a rehab protocol, they might not be entirely ready to “jump back in” to their regular program. EXOS has helped bridge that gap by providing our staff and the client with a personalized program to what they can and cannot do based upon each days programming. Having the PT within ear shot while a client is training is another benefit of their model – they’re always there to add their valuable opinion. This is a huge win for the client because they witness the collaborative effort to ensure that our entire system is geared to providing them the best solution for THEM. 

 
If you’d like to learn more, reach out to me and we can hop on a call…who knows, the next facility they partner with could be yours!