Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Morgan.
Hi Ryan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Before I became an entrepreneur, I played baseball at the college and professional level playing three years with the Kansas City Royals. I developed a love for strength and conditioning through my athletic career and saw direct results from applying what I learned through school and personal research to my own workouts. My desire to lead others started in college when I led the offseason conditioning program for my college team due to the fact that my school did not have a strength coach employed. From then, I knew that if I couldn’t play baseball for the rest of his life then this is what I wanted to do. I was obsessed with learning about health and fitness.
After baseball, I began working as the strength and conditioning coordinator for the St. Louis Pirates Baseball Organization, a premier select team in Missouri that works to advance high school players’ careers onto college and professional baseball. I built my own gym in 15 X 15-foot space at the baseball facility and started training athletes as well as many of the parents who wanted to get in shape.
This transitioned in 2013 to me opening my own physical location in Maryland Heights, MO called Pursuit Fitness, and at the beginning of my career, I trained anyone from 13-70 years old.
However, I found that I was drawn the most to training people who were middle-aged because I saw the tremendous benefits they were seeing and how much their quality of life had improved.
In 2017, I decided to focus 100% of my efforts to help people 45 and older live a higher quality of life and grew Pursuit Fitness to just over 200 personal training members by 2020.
In 2020, the pandemic forced me to think of new ways of helping people from an online perspective. So, I created another brand and Business called Vibrant Life that is specifically for women 50+. Here we help women 1 on 1 with making a complete lifestyle change, coaching them on nutrition, exercise, mindset, and providing the accountability needed to tie their commitment to results. Here our women get support daily from their 1 on 1 coach through instant messaging, weekly zoom meetings, and individualized support with their exercise, nutrition, and habit change.
Today, Pursuit Fitness is still going strong and Vibrant Life is growing exponentially as a business serving women all over the United States.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
No, I don’t think any entrepreneur has a completely smooth road. Being a successful entrepreneur is all about overcoming challenges, getting support from the right people, strengthening your weaknesses, and being determined to never give up.
At first, I had to learn how to transition from being just a coach into a marketer and a salesperson-something that was very difficult for me but a necessity to growing my business.
Then I had to learn how to become a manager and a leader-another bumpy road. I was no longer just responsible for myself but now was responsible for other people’s results and had to learn systems of holding people accountable. Then I had to learn how to be the best LEADER – how to make my employees feel important, keep morale high, give them purpose, things like that. I failed many many times and made many apologies doing things the wrong way.
Success is never achieved without some failures first.
Also, the biggest obstacle to overcome was this last year. We have lost 40% of members because of the pandemic but are now coming back. Without an online version of our business, we may not have survived. Having a good team foundation from my growth as a leader and knowing that I had to ask for help from others and invest in education to create an online business was crucial Learning from my mistakes and learning the importance of investing in education was critical to me succeeding.
As you know, we’re big fans of Pursuit Fitness and Vibrant Life. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
PURSUIT FITNESS
Pursuit Fitness in Maryland Heights specializes in working with adults 45+ who are just getting back into health and fitness. Our goal is to help our members live a life without limits so that they can make the rest of their life the best of their life (no matter their age).
Our training sessions have fewer people than most facilities which allow for more individualization and personal interaction. We only market to people 45+ so 90% of people are similar to one another.
We offer a group-style environment with the most personal attention of any other gym around. The workouts are made to help you live a higher quality of life-improving strength, stamina, balance, flexibility, and mobility.
We also offer 1on 1 accountability and nutrition coaching to help people outside of the gym.
Small group training (12 people or less)
– You won’t find rows of people on treadmills furiously trying to keep their heart rates in a certain “zone”.
– There is no feeling of pressure to keep up and do exactly what everyone else is doing. We fit the workout to you instead of you having to fit the workout.
– You can feel comfortable among like-minded people who share your desire to become healthy and fit.
– Injury prevention and proper form is our #1 priority.
– You’ll always get personal attention, even though you’re working out with a group. You’ll benefit from the care and expertise of our trainers at every visit.
– You’ll get all the benefits of a personal trainer (and more) without the personal trainer price tag.
Semi-private Training (4 people or less):
– Personal training individualization for up to 4 people while accommodating all fitness levels and saving you money. You don’t even need your own group.
– We utilize personal fitness assessments and progress tracking to routinely examine each Semi-Private Training client’s progress to smartly build and adjust their training sessions. This system allows members to schedule for any session time offered and with any of our expert personal trainers.
1 on 1 Training
30-minute sessions completely individualized with undivided attention.
VIBRANT LIFE
Vibrant Life that is an online coaching program specifically for women 50+. Here we help women 1 on 1 to make a complete lifestyle change, coaching them on nutrition, exercise, mindset, and providing the accountability needed to tie their commitment to results.
Here our women get support daily from their 1 on 1 coach through instant messaging, weekly zoom meetings, and individualized support with their exercise, nutrition, and habit change.
We also have a group support system with weekly meetings and social interaction. All of our women in our community are 50+ so women feel very comfortable sharing and supporting each other.
Part of my passion is getting people to use their new levels of health and fitness to experience life in better ways than they have previously before. So I started running fitness retreats in multiple areas of the country such as Colorado (steamboat springs and winter park), Arizona (Sedona, grand canyon), and Utah (zion national park, bruce canyon and the north rim of the grand canyon), Here I led groups of 8-12 members where we stayed in a large Airbnb together and I led them on hikes, bike rides and tackled things that most members never thought were possible from themselves. My goal is to help people realize how great life can be when health and fitness is a priority and for them to see how it can translate to life.
I did this before the pandemic and plan on starting it back up with Pursuit Fitness and Vibrant life in the near future.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was all about sports. I played every sport that I could and was always interested in working out since the 5th grade. I worked hard and always wanted to get better at anything I did (except chemistry class, haha).
I was determined to become a professional baseball player from a young age and I made that a reality for three years with the Kansas City Royals.
I would describe myself as determined, persistent, positive, optimistic, and loyal. Friendships, family, and creating a team of people that I enjoy working with every day are my passions. I am thrilled that I have been able to create career opportunities for people that enhance their life and give them the opportunity to make a great living doing what they love. I feel very grateful for where I am in life and I know there’s still a lot of good things to come.
Contact Info:
- Email: ryan@pursuitfitness.com
- Website: https://www.pursuitfitnessandperformance.com/
- Instagram: pursuitfitstl and vibrantlifeforwomen50plus
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PursuitFitnessStl and https://www.facebook.com/Vibrant-Life-For-Women-50-106382334838569
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnlWVIdIg3uHVa8WazilZ5g
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pursuit-fitness-and-performance-maryland-heights
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/groups/keystovibrantlifeforwomen
This is my FREE Facebook group for women 50+ to help with health and fitness
