[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to Create wealth through Franchising podcast and Kim Daily tv. In my studio today, a friend, a colleague, but also someone who has a very inspiring story about how franchising has changed his life. So let's welcome to the studio, Clay Allen. Clay, welcome to the studio of Kim Daly tv.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Thank you for having me. This is surreal, to say the least. Happy to be here.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And why is that, Clay, one of.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: My close friends and mentors, Gary Tober, who you know well, when I first got into this, he Franchoice, second conference ever, doing this, but he was like, you need to meet that person. She is a mover, she's a shaker. She gets stuff done. And she has a background in fitness. She recognizes this world knows good from bad. So you are one of the first couple of people. I watched your podcasts. I approached you to have that conversation, and I feel like we really hit it off given our backgrounds. And you've been a heck of an advocate for this brand, so I can't thank you enough.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Ah, shucks. To you and to that, Carrie Tober, the only other person in the entire franchising industry who that I know of graduated from the same high school as Kim Daly.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Indeed.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: What a small world.
Anyway, okay, so I invited Clay into the studio. He has a little bit of a different story. Typically, as you know, we interview franchisees, people who left corporate jobs and came into franchising screaming for freedom. That's not going to be the story that we're going to tell today. I'm going to let Clay take us back to what he was doing in the fitness industry when he answered the call to become a developer and helping to grow an emerging fitness franchise brand that today we all know and love as Alloy Personal Training. So, Clay, take us back to what was happening in your life, what was happening in your career, and why you answered that call.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Thank you for laying that groundwork.
I think a very prevalent theme in your podcast is people helping people. At the end of the day, that's what we do. And that's always been a theme in my career.
One of the big reasons I've stuck with fitness and health and wellness for so long.
Prior to ending up where I was, I was a college strength coach, track and field coach as well. And then I got picked off by this incredible organization, soreness exercise equipment, and I designed, sold, and implemented weight rooms for them. And I mean, this was the gambit. We're talking Joe Rogan, Jeff Bezos, home gym to Yankees, Red Sox, Alabama, uga, everything in between. So it was an incredible career. I was established, known, respected, top salesperson in that industry. And you know, it, it was great. But I hit a ceiling.
And this isn't a pry on my former employer because I can't thank them enough. That led me to where I'm at today. But I realized I hit a ceiling and I knew there was more because, you know, I had my declaration statements and things like that, things I wanted to achieve.
And I knew that I had to grow elsewhere. I was getting itchy.
So while I was there, I had a fortunate opportunity to develop the corporate franchising arm of that company.
So I was working with your large health clubs, lifetime equinox to your heavy hitters and franchising. And that was my first intro. That was my cursory to the franchising world. I knew nothing and it was great. Gave me a really deep familiarity with the space, what's out there, how it's differentiated. And then lo and behold, a couple months later I got introduced to the REPM group. Again, I knew nothing about franchising. I didn't know what I was looking into.
But I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with Carrie Tober and, and Nick Sheehan, one of the co founders of Ren Group. And they basically painted this picture for me of helping people realize their entrepreneurial goals, helping them understand their pain points, their goals, what they are, put together an action plan and realize results which, you know, coaching athletics, what I was doing with weight rooms, it was that.
But again, this was the unknown. So it was a huge risk for me.
We have a two year old downstairs, so I.
It was a big undertaking.
I took that risk, I took that leap because I saw the vision. After meeting Rick Mayo and the Alloy Crew, the brand I represent today exclusively, I saw it, I believed in it. It's something I could speak authentically to and it was very mutually aligned. I really believed in what we're doing here and being able to have that belief and represent that in an authentic way. While it was scary, while it was a risk that has led to the success we've been able to realize up to this point. I mean, when I came on, we had like 20 locations operational. We're over 130 now and that's in pretty short order about three years.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: So it's really an awesome, awesome, awesome story. I want to interrupt you right there. So I want to go back so that. To make sure the audience heard like when you say you designed and what were the words? Designed and implemented.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Designed, sold, and oftentimes installed weight Rooms. Yes.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Installed the weight rooms. Okay. In home gyms and commercial gyms.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: I mean this, to me, if you're a fitness person, like, doesn't this sound like the absolute freaking dream job? Like, you're the one who gets to like, look at all the equipment and be like, oh, do we want this one?
[00:05:20] Speaker B: Do we want this one?
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Was that. That was you?
[00:05:22] Speaker B: That was me. I mean, they came to me with their vision, their dream, and I was able to be the architect with it.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Amazing. And work with some. I'm guessing if you're doing like super high end bougie home gyms, you're working with some very wealthy people.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: So I mean, just the status of just that. Right. And like coming in and like helping them in their home with their home gym. Excuse me, Clay.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean for, again, you have that background in that world. This is a dream job. You are, it is a dream job. You, you're doing incredible things. And like, I really was my, in my 20s, into my 30s, like, I was accomplishing a lot and making good money, but I also had bigger aspirations.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: For myself and my family, especially for someone not to knock the strength and conditioning industry. But let's be how many strength and conditioning coaches can actually make a living off of that? Right? Oftentimes they grow up, they become personal trainers, right? Like that's where money is. But even that, you're a highly paid, you know, self employed solopreneur, trading your time for every hour of training, right? Which then leads us sort of into the franchise. But which is how, you know, what, what Rick was before he, you know, developed all this and built the franchise and, and developed the, the one to six personal training, you know, gym. But so, like, let's parallel some of the lessons you've learned from working with those super bougie wealthy people that you are installing home gyms for to people that you're now helping invest their life savings in their dream. And, and the riskiest thing you can do, which is start a business, even though, you know, we know that in franchising we can mitigate a lot of those risks by partnering with good franchisors, by following systems, by being properly capitalized and all the other things. Okay, so let's, for the sake of this conversation, let's not focus on the, the risk of the franchise investment more just the correlation, if there are any, between the how you were helping people in the past in fitness and how you're helping them now in changing their life to become the fitness Entrepreneur.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Again. I like to draw it back to the help. You have to care at the end of the day. Like, I firmly believe that you have to understand where people are coming from to help them realize results.
Number one, that's what we're doing here at Alloy. That is what I did with SoarmX. That's what you and I are doing in franchising. It's having those interpersonal skills and then problem solving capacity to basically listen and diagnose and then come to them with solutions.
By and large, again, what I did with soranex, this now, same thing with coaching. This now is a little different. But I get to meet people from all different walks of life.
The pain points are very similar. You know, wanting to get out of the corporate 9 to 5, wanting to stop sacrificing time for money, wanting to lay the foundation for the future, give myself something to retire into, pass on my kids, whatever that is, that's great. But the other big thing is like the passion behind it and I wouldn't necessarily call it a prereq, but like it does drive success.
It doesn't necessarily need to be like paramount and understood out the gate. But like Mike, who you had on one of our franchisees, spoke to this very well. Like he didn't necessarily realize it out the gate, but once he got in there and started pouring into his work, he was just like, I understand this. I love this. I can help people set deeper roots within my community and I can align with the mission.
It just correlates so well to our franchisee success. And you know, what I done, I've done in the past. I do all those same things and why you just have to care.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it's so good. You know, it takes me back because I was a personal trainer as, you know, like during. I think you do that during college. I was a personal trainer. I have a minor in nutritional biochemistry. I'm sorry, I majored in nutritional biochemistry with a minor in sports nutrition. And I worked as a personal trainer all during college and I was on my way to work with professional athletes more on the nutrition side for sport performance. That was my like vision coming out of college when I answered the call to franchising and got completely derailed. But one of the things when I was, I went off as an entrepreneur and when I was looking for more stability and more systems and people. Right. Entrepreneurship is so lonely.
Right. Franchising is collaborative. It's collective. You're, you're never. You're in business for yourself but not by yourself. So you have all these other people around you. So when I turned back to my franchising people and was like, okay, I need an opportunity.
One of the things that attracted me to becoming a franchise consultant was my love for personal training. I saw a direct correlation, right? So in personal training, you build a one to one relationship and you're, you're identifying people's goals and you're moving them through a process that ultimately changes their life. Right. There's no better way, in my opinion, than to give somebody life than when you help them get their body back. Right. Their health back, their mobility back. Like that for me was what my whole life was going to be about, fitness and nutrition. And so when I saw this franchise consulting role, I was like, wow, that's like the same thing as being a personal trainer, only now we're talking about business ownership, which I had just done as an entrepreneur for five years and knew something about.
And so instead of talking about fitness and nutrition, we're talking about building wealth and leveraging businesses.
I mean, I just had no idea that when I, you know, started back in 2002, before you were even born, Clay Allen, I, I would end, I would end up here 23, 24 years later.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: It's. But in the same. Let's again, franchising small business, drawing parallels to what we're doing, what you and I have done, what we're doing here at Alloy, like while weight loss, getting your body back, longevity, while those things may seem simple, rudimentary, counting calories, turning fitness into a next part of your lifestyle, they can be challenging, especially when you're talking about candidates looking to get into entrepreneurship. All right, it's, it can be daunting. So if you don't know where to start and if you don't have the accountability and the expectations behind what you're doing, it can be very, very lofty to want to achieve whatever. You know, aiming for the stars and hitting the moon, that can be a tall ask.
So that's where we came in as personal trainers, as coaches, that's where, you know, Alloy and myriad of other franchises out there come in to offer that assistance and consult structure. What's that?
[00:12:05] Speaker A: And consultants.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: And consultants, yeah. I mean, well, and trust, reliability, consistency, like that's the name of the game here and that's what your candidates get from you. And the, the other, again, trust, accountability, expectations there. You have to trust me.
That was when I made that introduction I alluded to at the beginning and I met you for the first time, that, that was step number One, you have to trust me to take your candidates through the process and be that guiding light.
So, you know, it's scary without a doubt, not to be doom and gloom on anything, but that's why we're here, to help guide, to help be that light in the darkness, whatever that may be, to help people find the right opportunity that's going to help them achieve their goals. And it's just such a blessing to be able to do this day in, day out and meet all these people from around the world.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: It's so true. And in franchising, you know, you follow me, you've heard me say that franchising is who, not what. And this is an example. And that's what Clay is saying. Like when people are like, literally this morning I did a consultation with a candidate and he was like, well, how do you, you know, how do you come up with your list of franchises, right? And so I'm like, look, it's not some algorithm like where I plug in like all this data points and like it. It's a human algorithm based on 23 years in the trenches relationships. So I can have the greatest new fancy widget and not get a good vibe from the people. Like that the franchisor genuinely cares about building culture or the salesperson who's going to tell the be the front line up for that company not feeling like they have a storytelling capability or an ability to connect with my candidates. And I'm not going to send a candidate over there.
Not because I want to keep my candidates from the shiny object, because you're not going to buy a shiny object. You're buying a relationship. I hope you're not going to buy a shiny object. You're buying a relationship because when the business gets hard, and it will because there's seasons to all things, right? The rhythm of life.
You need to be with people who have stood the test of time. Like Rick Mayo at Alloy, right? He's been in personal training for over 30 years. Guy knows everything there is to know. He's seen it all done at all. Like, so when he's your franchisor, what are you worried about?
He's not going to let the whole thing crumble with the next hiccup.
He knows how to pivot around it. He's probably done it before. And that's what we're talking about. And it starts all the way with the relationship between the person developer like Clay and Kim Daly.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: I think what really shines through in what you just said is recognizing great, great organizations, great leadership Great mentors, people that are going to. Because again, I referred to this earlier, mutually aligned. If you don't win, the franchisor does not win. Correct. And that's the way business should be approached. And that's the lens that, you know, you as a consultant are coaching your candidates through. Same thing with me. You know, I'm giving them all the tools so they can make an educated decision. But that's what it boils down to. The feels need to be there. You need to feel supported. You need to know they have your best interest in mind.
And that that's how I was able to make that jump into franchising. I felt all those things. I felt that I had a line to success. Why? Because of an incredible brand, great leadership, not only at Replim, but Alloy. And you know, again, I truly believed in what they do.
So I can speak to it authentically and, you know, guide all these candidates through the process.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: So let's talk a little bit about your career now at repm and with this brand, some of the, maybe the things you've learned along the way about candidates, about helping people move through what amounts to like one of the biggest decisions they'll ever make in their lives, especially if they're leaving a corporate job in order to go start their business, but inevitably investing in themselves, mostly for the first time in such a big way. Right. When you're taking your life savings and investing it in yourself. What, what are some of the, like memorial stones that you have, some of the key highlights when you think back and go, wow, these are, these are great life lessons I've picked up from helping so many people.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: No two people are the same in regards to where they're coming from, what their vision is. While the foundational components may be similar, you know, again, create pulling back that.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: We all want money. We all want money.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Yeah, those foundational components are the same, but no two people's direction or pain points are going to be the same. So again, for me it's just paramount. And consultants like yourself do such a good job of prepping candidates, understanding what they're getting into, helping them, but also helping them go through some introspection in regards to like, hey, where are you at? Where are you going? Like, what's the deal? What really brought you here today?
So unpacking all that and tailoring the story to them, helping them realize this is going to help you mitigate that pain or alleviate it entirely or achieve that goal and continuing that story because like the, the again, declaration statements and stuff like that. Something you talk a lot about, they have to visualize it themselves.
They have to be able to connect those dots. So just being that reaffirming voice in the back, like, hey, remember why we started this process?
Remember what that pain point was or what that goal is? This is why we're having the conversation to help you mitigate, alleviate or achieve that goal.
And you know that that has just shined through. And again, you have to care at the end of the day, like what I do. I'm not a used car salesman.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: I'm not.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: I really view what I do as education. So you can make the best possible decision for you and your family. Like at the end of the day, if you buy, awesome. If you find something else, even better, I'm going to be cheering you on from afar.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: You know, I've does call me from time to time and say, yeah, you know, Kim, I'm not really sure that this is like the right person for us. Like as we've worked together more and more, that happens less and less because I'm able to identify the people he's probably going to weed out anyway. But. And I love that about you, Clay, because you're not the franchisor that's just awarding a business to everybody. There are certain, you know, criteria. They're hard criteria and they're soft criteria. Right. The intangibles as well as the tangibles to that awarding process. And I respect that and I think that it demonstrates, you know, high integrity from you, but from your whole organization. Yeah, I. So I have another. Oh, did you want to say something?
[00:18:58] Speaker B: Sorry, mutual alignment. I couldn't agree more.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: I have a self serving question. So do you work any organic leads?
Honestly unprepared by consultants?
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Honestly out the gate, not a ton. Majority of our lead flow came from consulting organizations, franchise being the driving force behind that, which. Thank you guys. But as of late, interestingly enough, we've seen a lot more which they have been either people that found Alloy online, they usually had like a friend family that was positively affected, or they were clientele and an organization and they were moving and they realized the impact that it had on their life and wanted to share that with others.
So Q4 this year I think we ended up closing 13 folks, give or take. Well, not Q4, that was November, December, 13 folks, but five of those were actually organic and they all fell within existing clientele or people that were positively infected by this by a family member.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: That's a really good sign.
The question I had really was going to ask is Is there, it's very self serving.
Is there a difference in how they, the candidates move through the process when they're prepared mentally and financially in all the ways that like a Kim Daly would prepare the candidate and work with you, with that candidate versus the organic candidate?
[00:20:20] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. It's.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: And which one do you prefer, Clay?
[00:20:24] Speaker B: I prefer the Kim Daly lead.
This is also self serving and selfish. But you know, for to, to the point I made a moment ago, like, you prepare these folks, you lay the groundwork, like, here's what you're going to expect. This is not just a walk in the park. It's going to require some work. Same thing as franchising at the end of the day and we're in this together. I'm here to support you. And by doing that front end legwork, but also ongoing support, finding the right opportunities and introducing them to people like myself, it makes the process so much more seamless rather than me having to do all that coaching, introducing to financing all that stuff and like, hey, here's an ftd. Ever read one before?
Again, you come in organically. That can be scary. That's where I have to be that guiding light. Whereas people like yourself, the incredible consultants in this world, they help arm you with all the information you need to be successful in this and find the right opportunity.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: I often wonder why anybody does this on their own, but I think it's just a misconception of like, you're going to be steered by a consultant or like, you know, they're, you're going to be limited by a consultant or some people don't even know we exist or their fees must be, you know, exorbitant or free. You know, I hear oftentimes when I reach out to someone who follows me on my podcast or especially from YouTube, people, when I call them people are like, Kim Daly. Like, I figured you were too busy to talk to me. I'm like, the whole point of my, all my content is for me to talk to you. Like, I always find that like, so hilarious. So anyway, I just, I had to ask that little self.
I knew the answer because I know the value that we bring and I just want the listener out there to hear it. Not just from Kim Daly, about what, how I can be valuable to them, but why franchisors and the people who help prepare people to become franchisees value working with consultants. So thanks for that. So, so you, you've been in this now for like three years or so?
[00:22:35] Speaker B: Yeah, about three and a half.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: And I mean, listen, you There's a lot of franchises out there, and most of them are not franchisors, and most of them are not worth anybody's time. Most especially the people who work there and have to, like, quote, sell the franchise and represent something that they're even questioning, is this going to be around. Can you imagine having that job? I cannot imagine it. So you got, you know, very lucky. You've landed with some incredible people who demonstrate, you know, knowledge and leadership, and they know how to build and support good franchise brands. Um, so when you think about the risk that you took, now, looking back, let's share some advice, words of wisdom on, you know, the then and the now, like, how happy you are with what's happened and proud of yourself for taking that risk and, like, those kind of. That. I want that kind of duality looking.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: I would do it again, without a doubt, and I love hearing that from our franchisees. The other thing, like, when asked, prompted with the question, would you do it again? Like, that's what I want to hear. Yes, I would do it again. The leadership's there, all that stuff. So, like, in retrospect, absolutely, yes, I'd do it again. I love it.
But I. I was actually thinking a lot about this, setting my goals in this year.
Happy New Year, everybody. But it's timing.
Timing is never going to be right.
You know, whether that's making the jump into franchising, taking that bet on yourself, it's never going to be right. So you need to be very deliberate in your assessment of where you're at, what you have at your disposal. You never want to overextend, putting yourself in a compromising position, that type stuff. And that's all things I had to take stock of as I was making that decision.
Like, do I have that nest egg? Am I set?
While the promises are great and what it could be is incredible.
Am I set to take that leap? And I was, and it has paid off in spades. So that. That would be the one big thing I would recommend, you know, to have that introspection, have that conversation with the Kim dailies, like, hey, here's where I'm at.
I'm really interested in franchising, but I don't know anything about it. I didn't. And it was daunting. Like, I was drinking through a fire hose for the first couple months.
So having somebody like a Carrie Tober, Akin Daly, those, again, are going to be that guiding light in the process, and I cannot overemphasize that enough. Like, again, to your question, A moment ago. Organic versus having a consultant. If I'm the person looking at a business, I'm going through a consultant at the end of the day because I don't know what I don't know.
And you know, you, you have made more mistakes than I have had the opportunity to make up to this point. I have a wealth of information. I keep those tight to my side. I'm sure you do as well. So you don't repeat.
Let's shorten that learning curve.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: I think it's great. There's a lot of parallels.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: So he didn't make the leap from corporate job to business ownership, but he made the leap in a pivotal time in his young family's life from a very secure bougie job where he was well respected, well known, doing well, and took a risk on himself and ventured into this whole industry of franchising. And, you know, if you follow my podcast, Clay, I love to ask people at the end of the interview, so do you think franchising has made you unemployable? So I can't ask you that, but I can ask you, do you think you're a lifer?
[00:26:13] Speaker B: I absolutely am.
I absolutely am. You know, whether that's.
These are ongoing conversations in our own house, our own household, opening our own business.
You know, granted, we still do my wife's physical therapist, so we still train people. I do out of my garage. I got an awesome home gym directly below me. So, like, I'm an entrepreneur in that sense, but it's just like, hey, hedging our bets for the future and things along those lines, like getting into business for ourself.
Yeah, we're heading that way. It's just a matter of finding the right thing, figuring out what that is. Alloy very well could be that for us.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: Wait a second. You gotta call Kim Daly.
[00:26:55] Speaker B: No, it's an incredible world. I see people doing what you're doing.
The consulting side, the development side. There are so many opportunities in regards to realms I can go down without going back to the corporate world to be successful, be my own boss, and, you know, create, help people, but also create that life changing wealth.
There. There's so much opportunity here. I will not be going back.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: Yeah, a very common refrain from those of us who venture down the path of franchising. And for those who are listening, that's what we want for you as well. We want you to become a lifer in franchising because franchising has the opportunity to completely and permanently change your life. The one thing I have to throw in before we end this awesome interview is just, you know, there's an expression that winners win. And Clay, one thing I recognized in you from the very first conversation I had with you was just how intentional you are, how clear headed you are and you're a winner. And that's why you won in your past career and that's why you are a winner now. You identified the partnership with winners in Rick Mayo and Carrie Tober and Nick Sheehan and the people at Repmo. And then you identify in my candidates the winners to bring into the winner circle. And that's what is, that's what this whole thing is about. And my whole mindset coaching piece, which again, I had to get another shameless plug here, is to help those people out there who aren't sure that you have that winning edge, who maybe you spent, you know, you're on the sideline of life because you're worried that I don't really know how to be successful. And before I can go investing my life savings in a franchise, I need to understand success and how it's actually created. That's why I ventured down this whole new entrepreneurial path and launched a whole personal development mindset coaching academy. It's the mental work that drives success because it's the mental work that literally creates failure. And in a very short amount of time, I have changed, permanently changed franchisees lives. It's, it's literally like it's the most satisfying work I've ever done in my life. And it's not me changing their lives. It's the work that I'm teaching them. It's the rich ideas that I'm coaching from that I'm, that I'm. That these franchisees are adopting and, and in trust in Kim Daly and taking these and then implementing them into their business. So this is your call to action. If you are out there on the sideline of life and you're thinking, I got to get in this franchising game here in 2020.
You know that I want to be your franchise consultant. But there's another call to action because if you're out there and you're thinking, man, I don't know that I can take the risk unless I really understand success and failure on another level. That's the Z suite. You don't have to be a franchisee to come. In fact, I want you to come before you become a franchisee because I think that we can lay the foundation in your mindset and set up that winner's edge that's going to propel you out of the gate faster when you go on to become a franchisee. But all things Kim Daly, you can find
[email protected] you know, and all of my information is in the description below. And before we we leave this, we just want to say, Clay, thank you so much for being one of the first guests of 2026 and sharing your your risk and reward story here today on Create wealth through Franchising. And Kim Daily tv.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: Thank you for the opportunity.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: Thank you so much. Okay, this is your call to action. No more waiting. There's only now. As Clay said earlier, there's never going to be the right time. There is only now, and now is the time. Follow the link in the description below because you know that I can't wait to be your franchise consultant and your daily mindset coach.
