This Is My Story
Darin J. Rell

Upon completing my education I quickly found that a Health Education / Exercise Science degree does not necessarily guarantee that your personal and financial goals will automatically be met in the real world. I learned that being a personal trainer does not give you credibility or respect from the medical field nor does it allow you to earn much more than minimum wage at the local gym.

In early 2001, my wife of six months and I learned that we would be expecting our first child in the winter of 2002. At the time I was working at the YMCA for $7.80 per hour. I quickly realized that this was not going to allow me to support my new family or allow me to live the lifestyle I so desired. My search began in the cardiac rehab field and quickly I realized that working as an exercise specialist-physiologist was not something I enjoyed doing. I needed the stimulation of working with multiple populations of people who “want” to better themselves. Not necessarily the ones that are forced to because of a CVD! The next direction I went was to physical therapy. The position I applied for was a Physical Therapist Assistant. I did not know at the time that you had to have a two year degree for this title and that my four year degree did not qualify me for the position Although I was upset at this, I was offered a position as a Physical Therapy Aide. Not what I was looking for, however it did get me in the door and it paid $3 more per hour than the YMCA was already paying me. For those of you who do not know, the minimum requirement for being an aide is a high school diploma. Needless to say, I was quite upset to realize how hypocritical my previous employer (YMCA) was. They praise “Spirit, Mind and Body” and yet they do nothing to help their own staff attain those levels of wellness.

Upon starting my new PT Aide position I quickly realized that my own ego was being crushed on a daily basis. My wife became my biggest cheerleader when I came home each day that things would get better. The environment I was working in was new to me. I literally folded and stocked linens, filed charts and did remedial PT modalities all day, every day. Occasionally I was able to show my exercise prescription skills when working with orthopedic patients. This continued for the next six months at which time the physical therapy department manager realized that I had more to offer the department than folding laundry.

Our clinic was different than most in that it was inside a large hospital and it had a full fitness center for its 1500 employees. This provided the opportunity for me to be promoted to an exercise specialist. My new position allowed me to work individually with patients in setting up training programs for them to follow once they were discharged from PT. Not long after my new appointment the current fitness coordinator resigned her position and I quickly jumped at the chance to fill the position. It was truly a matter of being in the right place at the right time. From that point on my position evolved into a multi-tasking nightmare. I was still doing about 5 hours a week of aide work, 15 hours of Exercise Specialist duties and the other twenty plus hours I performed fitness coordinator duties. On top of that I also did all the technical writing for our clinic assessment forms and provided tech support to our staff of physical therapists.

The previous fitness coordinator for the hospital was never allotted the same amount of time to mange as I was; therefore when I took over there was much work to be done. At the time it only had 62 members and was rarely used. My first goal was to market to the other employees of the hospital and soon my work began to pay off. The membership began to almost double on a monthly basis and after the first year we had more than quadrupled the original number of memberships. I received compensatory recognition from the department manager for the success that the fitness center was experiencing.

When I was in college I always thought that it would be my dream job to work as an exercise specialist for a physical therapy clinic and to be a fitness coordinator for a hospital. However once having these titles and being successful in these roles I realized that I had a disease called “never contentitis” meaning that I was still not satisfied professionally. I still missed personal training. Even though there was a good chance that I would not have the same financial comforts as a personal trainer as I currently had, I began thinking of ways to get back into my true profession. My first step in that direction brought me to a meeting with the vice president of the hospital who oversees the fitness center. I requested permission to begin training clients in the hospital fitness center and suggested we work out a percentage that I could pay back to the hospital for allowing me to do so. To my surprise, she said that would not be necessary and that I could go ahead and do so during the hours that I was not scheduled to work.

Over the next couple of months I was able to take on about 10 clients and really began to get back into being a personal trainer and realized just how much I missed the interaction with clients. At the time I was working anywhere from 50 to 70 hours per week. I began to go down the same road as so many others have in that life began to be all about work and not enough about spending time with family. This tension forced me to reconsider the direction I was going.

On December 5, 2002 I was training a client at the hospital and it finally occurred to me that I really needed to consider the idea of opening my own medical exercise/post rehab/personal training facility. The area I live in is Spokane Washington . It has long been known to be one of the worst cities to establish a business because it has floundered in a poor economy since way before I was even born. I however had the mindset that nothing could stop me and that it would not be that hard to find a vacant office building basement to start my operation. To my surprise it was as expensive to rent a basement as it was a street access suite. So the searching continued until December 18, 2002 when I found a vacant space that had previously been a carpet and cabinet shop. It was a good location because it was in the downtown area and was only about 3 blocks away from the hospital. As a matter of fact, I could see the front door of my gym from my office at the hospital. This made it quite easy to move back and forth throughout the day.

Now I had to figure out how I was going to come up with the money to get the equipment necessary to open the gym. I tried conventional small business loans and quickly found that no bank was willing to take a risk on what was according to them a “high risk” venture. After exhausting all other possibilities, a good friend offered to loan me the money to get up and running. It was truly a blessing .

Once I had the necessary funding, I was able to order my equipment and begin the process of tearing down walls, building new walls, laying hardwood flooring and finally painting the facility before the equipment was delivered on January 28 th , 2003 .

Below are pictures of the demolition and construction process at my first gym that took place in January of 2003.

The next four pictures are of the first gym right before the grand opening in February of 2003.

The grand opening was on February 1 st , 2003. We had a big party in which I drank way too much Merlot but couldn't help but to feel an overwhelming amount of pride in what I was setting out to do.

During this time I began to cut my hours at the hospital and was pretty much splitting my time between the two. About two months after opening I began to entertain the idea of bringing on other trainers as sub-contractors to train their own clients for a percentage of their fees. After a brief search I was able to get two trainers and one pilates instructor. This carried on until August of 2003. The business was doing well, or at least it was covering its expenses. However it was at this time that I began to have some difficulties attracting people to my facility. The location was not conducive to foot traffic and had a relatively high level of transients in the area. After a few experiences with vandalism I decided it was time for an upgrade.

I began to look for other locations for the gym. I had been doing it long enough to realize this was what I wanted to eventually do full time and therefore entertained the idea of taking on more risk with a larger, nicer facility. My search brought me to the historic Paulsen Center , which was in the heart of the now flourishing business district in Downtown Spokane. I was able to not only increase the size of the facility but was able to bring on more trainers, get more equipment and most of all, bring in more clients. During 2003, Spokane had literally received a facelift and truly worked its way out of its dull economy. It now seems as though everywhere you look another building is getting rebuilt or replaced. It has brought me a great amount of pride to be part of that transition.

The Following 13 pictures are of the new training facility. Some did not come out very well due to the track lighting that distorts the digital images.

It is now January 7 th , 2004 and I have recently quit my positions at the hospital and am running the gym full time. It is amazing to look back and realize it was only one year ago that I decided to do all this and sometimes it's hard to believe how fast the time went.

Specialty Training is now the areas most exclusive personal training facility. With eight trainers and top of the line equipment the word has definitely gotten out. I have truly cured my disease of “never contentitis” with this endeavor. I hope by sharing this story, others will take the leap and do the same. If you are working for one of the large chain gyms, it might be time to reconsider. You will never achieve the same amount of personal or professional success while working for one of those companies. If you look back in history you will find that anybody who has been successful says they did it by taking calculated risks. You must be willing to do the same. A good friend of mine who opened a different type of business around the same time as me summed it up best. He said “you must have a lion's heart”. People will tell you that it cannot be done. A lot! It is up to you to step to the plate and say “yes I can and yes I will”!

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or just want to talk about everything else that occurred in the last year that got me to where I am today.

Darin J. Rell BS, CFT-ISSA, BLSI-AHA

Director

Specialty Training

421 W. Riverside Ave.

Suite 104,105,416

Spokane , WA 99201

darin@specialtytraining.biz

www.spokanefitness.net

509-869-9643