Speaker 1: 0:30

My name is Henry Torres and the name of my business is FTNS Academy, so Fitness Academy is my primary source of energy and also, I guess, income at this point. I also have a construction company that I partner with as part of their sales training and that's called Falcon Roofing. And then I have a party planning company that's called District Booth and it's photo booth rentals, djs and master of ceremonies for weddings, birthday parties and stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 1:03

So that's a whole lot of different hats.

Speaker 1: 1:05

It's a lot going on, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:07

We'll start with your fitness company. How did you get into that?

Speaker 1: 1:10

So that's actually what started me on my journey to just kind of be in the mindset of working for myself or establishing a system for things to kind of flow. Back in 2012, I was a coach for a company and my old boss saw something in me and offered a chance for me to purchase a part of her business at that time. Okay, it was a fitness company.

Speaker 2: 1:34

It was a fitness company. Okay, yeah, so I was a coach for that it was. So that was a. It was a fitness company. It was a fitness company.

Speaker 1: 1:36

Okay yeah, so I was a coach for that. It was called Jump Bunch. It was a national franchise, mm-hmm, and I really enjoyed working with the children. You know I was very good at it.

Speaker 2: 1:45

So it was fitness geared towards kids. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:52

Okay, yeah, we that point. I had no kids, I was 22 years old, but I was just very good, you know, with the energy and the like overall.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Keeping up with all the little ones, yeah, yeah yeah, some people, either you got it or you don't, you know, as far as working with kids. So I took that opportunity back in 2012 to purchase this franchise, which I had no business doing. But, you know, through faith and through self-belief, I was able to kind of get it done. So I took out personal loans, I sold all my assets, which was, you know, a car, a motorcycle. Not much at that time, but I was able to secure that business back in 2012. And from 2012 to 2018, I ran a franchise called Jump Bunch.

Speaker 1: 2:40

Um, it went very well. I learned a lot. I mean, I took, you know, I took business ownership, you know, with having no experience, no business background and nobody in my family that really you just jumped right in.

Speaker 2: 2:55

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:55

So that's like a big part of I mean now, at this point where I'm 33 years old, I preach self-belief and I preach self-confidence and just taking opportunities when they arise, because you just never know which one is going to really make or break your trajectory in life.

Speaker 2: 3:12

Why did you feel like you had no business purchasing the business? Were you just not ready yet?

Speaker 1: 3:17

Yeah, I mean in my mind I always wanted to be a business owner. But you know, I moved here from Columbia at nine years old. I got into the school system, you know, at third or fourth grade and just kind of went by you know, Didn't really think too much about college until my senior year of high school. Yeah, where?

Speaker 2: 3:39

I had like what's the next step?

Speaker 1: 3:40

yeah, yeah, so it was that kind of thing. You know, I was just kind of going through the motions of school. I played a lot of sports, I was very social, I was very much trying to fit into the culture here. So it took me a while to kind of really find myself. You know, once I moved, I'm moving. I moved here with my mother. It was just her and I and uh, it wasn't easy and I guess her, yeah, her job was just for me to be happy, like that's all she focused on.

Speaker 1: 4:07

It was like my happiness. She didn't really care too much about academics or so, which I mean. I love her for it because you know I'm here now.

Speaker 2: 4:14

So and you seem pretty happy. I am very happy. Yeah, so she did a good job. She did do a good job.

Speaker 1: 4:19

Yeah, yeah, um. So you know, I just, uh, I took it because I believed in myself, but at that time I didn't have any business background, so I didn't know, how to hire, how to market, how to operate, how to build systems, how to implement things and I just knew how to be a really good coach.

Speaker 2: 4:37

Yeah, did you get support from the franchise?

Speaker 1: 4:40

That's a great question for a very long. No, you know, they had a system in place but it was kind of dated. So they supported you in a sense of like they had an operation. It was manual.

Speaker 2: 4:53

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:54

So you kind of knew the gist of how to run the business. But marketing you had to do your own marketing, you had to do your own. Hiring, you had to like. You know, it was very much like hey, here's like the blueprint, but you got to execute it yourself, yeah, um. So at 22 years old it was like it was great actually. I mean, I did really well.

Speaker 2: 5:11

Uh, we built it from that's impressive at 22 to do that. Yeah, it's a lot, it's a lot now.

Speaker 1: 5:16

Yeah, I was 22, 23 hiring like 26, 27, 30 year olds, you know it was like it was a lot at that time for me yeah but it helped me. It helped me a lot. Just continue to build my confidence, because that was um, that's what got me there in the first place.

Speaker 2: 5:32

Just and it sounds like you learned a lot from it. Yeah, so you had that for how many years I?

Speaker 1: 5:39

had that for about six or seven years. Okay 2012 to 2018, 2019. At that time, like during those years, I started my photo booth rental company, which at that time was called EPC Epic Party Company. We started renting out photo booths to weddings, quinceaneras, corporate events, and I saw that as like a very fun hobby at the time, but also, like, because it was like a weekend thing for the most part, most parties on the weekend and it was great.

Speaker 1: 6:10

I mean income was fine. It was able to help me kind of push to the next level, you know eventually purchasing a home and things like that. So no regrets in establishing that company and also during the time that I had my fitness franchise, I was like still working on the next thing.

Speaker 2: 6:31

Always thinking ahead, always thinking ahead.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Yeah, so I started a mobile detailing company, had that for about a year, then I sold it because I thought you really you come to find that you have to be passionate about what you do.

Speaker 2: 6:44

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:44

You know, as you get older, it's not really about the money, or even if it's a great idea if you're not passionate about it.

Speaker 2: 6:50

It just won't work. So did you feel like the car detailing wasn't?

Speaker 1: 6:53

No, it wasn't. And I did all the right things. I took all the right steps. I went to a master class in California and learned from the top detailing people out there, came back, implemented a wonderful website, had a great brand, started getting clients right away nonstop, but my heart wasn't in it. I just chose to, you know, sell it and have somebody else take over. That was really you know, gonna do it the right, the right way yeah, it sounds like you built it.

Speaker 2: 7:22

Got it in a good place. Yeah, I got in a good place.

Speaker 1: 7:25

I started to understand yeah, I started to understand kind of what it took, you know, which is having a system in place and not having to do everything yourself and and just focus on doing a couple things work smarter, yeah, not harder, yeah, right, yeah, so it's a always a work in progress so right now, currently, I still enjoy. I enjoy doing the photo booth stuff because my mother so my mother is a party planner okay, so she's kind of what got me into that.

Speaker 1: 7:49

Yeah, I still enjoy working with her, spending time with her. Whenever she gets me referrals, I'll go. When she does, and when it's like another person, I'll send one of my people there. But if it's my mom who's like, hey, we have a party coming up, would you like? So I'll go and spend time with her and take the booth and stuff like that and make sure everyone's like really taken care of, because it's your mom's party exactly yeah, yeah, that's right. Um, so you know, ultimately it's been a good journey.

Speaker 2: 8:13

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:13

Yeah, from 22 to now.

Speaker 2: 8:16

Well, tell me about the fitness company you have now.

Speaker 1: 8:19

Oh, yeah, so I love that. Yeah, so Fitness Academy I came with that concept or that brand right around COVID time. So around COVID, the franchise that I was with, they said, hey, right now is a really tough time If there's an out. It's right now Like if you want out of your contract, we can do it now. Um, and you know, there's no, no penalty or anything like that, and I took it at that time all the schools closed so all my clients were pretty much, you know, out of reach right so it was a very tough time for the family for me and for at that time I was married already.

Speaker 1: 8:50

So yeah and, uh, my wife was pregnant with the firstborn. It was a lot.

Speaker 2: 8:55

And everything shut down? Yeah, everything shut down.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Yeah, so I took the out from that company, okay, and then I started working on my own brand Okay, so it was a very similar concept mobile classes, but just mine. Because when I was working with the franchise, it was still your own.

Speaker 2: 9:19

You know, you still have to come up with your own curriculum, in a sense, and train your own people, and you know you were in charge of your classes so my husband and I are franchise owners as well, so I get it one thousand percent.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Being a franchisee is uh you know they make or break you, you know. So it's like it could be a great situation where they do a lot of things for you, or they could just kind of let you swim on your own from the beginning, and that's tough.

Speaker 2: 9:37

Yes, yeah, well, you gotta fish for your own clients and yeah, that kind of stuff is tough um, yeah so. So tell me how it's going now with with fitness academy yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:46

So luckily, right after covid kind of started to, I guess, slow down or things started to open back up, we got a call from one of our biggest old clients and at that time I was working at a Maserati dealership as an inventory manager because I needed to, you know.

Speaker 2: 10:02

COVID, you needed to supplement.

Speaker 1: 10:03

Yeah, covid shut everything down and my wife was pregnant, you know, with our firstborn, had the baby.

Speaker 2: 10:09

And now what you know? I had a mortgage, I had a lot of expenses. Life gets real, yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:15

So I took a job, I got hired out in Tyson's Corner and we moved from Gaithersburg, maryland, to Tyson's Corner.

Speaker 2: 10:22

Okay.

Speaker 1: 10:22

At that time. I worked there for about three months and then I got the call. The call was like hey, are you still doing fitness for kids? And I said yes, we are, although. And I said yes, we are, although we weren't at the time. But you know, all it takes is like that one push. So I got the call, I accepted the you know the client offer to do PE, for it's like a huge private daycare center and it's not even a daycare center, it's a private school in McLean. Ok. So we took them as our first client as a part of Fitness Academy. Ok, and then started growing. The company started calling. So once they called me then I started calling all the schools that I had contact with or relationships with in the past and just started building the roster, building the client list again.

Speaker 2: 11:03

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:03

So from one you know, 2020, we're now, we're at like 16 schools every week.

Speaker 2: 11:09

So that's, great.

Speaker 1: 11:10

So we're back, you know, not quite to where we were before COVID, but it's also a much more chill and relaxed feel because there's no pressure on the franchisor. Yeah, or COVID protocol COVID protocols, and it's just on my own terms.

Speaker 2: 11:28

Right, yeah, it's a good balance right now. What kind of schools do you market to? Is this mostly private schools?

Speaker 1: 11:34

Mostly private schools we run our own summer camps. We run our own spring break camps and winter camps at parks and rec centers and stuff like that. But, it's mostly just private schools that don't have or can afford a PE teacher or they don't have the space for equipment.

Speaker 2: 11:50

So we come in and we bring the equipment, we bring the curriculum and all they have to do is cut us a check at the end of the month and it's, you know, tax deductible for them and right for us, because they're non-profit, because they're private, yeah, so, do you have one of those big buses that comes? No, that's funny.

Speaker 1: 12:07

No, no, no, no, all our coaches haul their own stuff in their car. There's nothing more than you know. A couple agility ladders, the sport of the day. It's nothing extravagant like moon bounces or anything like that, it's just sports fitness and music and movement that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2: 12:24

Just getting the kids active.

Speaker 1: 12:27

Getting them to enjoy it and just kind of see themselves as build their identity around a healthier lifestyle has fitness always been important to you I, sports has always been important to me. Uh, fitness has always been important to me and it's really, I guess, what kept me going when I was growing up here. So I really do appreciate sports. Yeah, I really do.

Speaker 2: 12:50

I think it's a wonderful we're a big sports family and I feel like it's just, it's a wonderful thing, for we're a big sports family.

Speaker 1: 12:54

I think it's a wonderful thing for young boys, young girls. It builds a lot of character, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:00

And I feel like those skills can translate to so many aspects of your life, yeah, 100%. The skills you learn from playing sports and the drive and the coaching and all of that can kind of play into what you do with your career and with your life, right yeah?

Speaker 1: 13:16

I agree.

Speaker 2: 13:17

So tell me a little bit about what's so rewarding to you about this.

Speaker 1: 13:22

Oh geez, you know I have an interview from like 2013 that we did. It was like a highlight for my business back then and it's still true now. It's like you can have the worst day right and you walk into a classroom full of kids that see you as like their rock star. You know it really turns things around for you. So I always say, like you know, if you appreciate them, they're always going to appreciate you, you know so for me it's that it's being able to go and be kind of the best part of their day it probably is the best part of the day.

Speaker 2: 13:56

It's their break in their day. They have to have fun.

Speaker 1: 13:59

They get to move around, and I mean a lot of schools now. I mean they're kind of picking up on it, but you know, mobility is is huge, like being able to just have the kids get up and move and do things where they're not just sitting for so long. So they they see us as like it's like rock stars.

Speaker 2: 14:14

Yeah, yeah, it's cute. You're like, oh, the fun guy, the fun people are coming, the fun guy, yeah, the fun teacher's coming, and you get to get all your wiggles out and get your stress out, yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:24

I'm sure you love it. It is very rewarding for me. How do you set up your programs and like what you're going to like what you're going to do for the day, sure, um, so we have that established from.

Speaker 2: 14:38

It's like a 52-week program for the. Oh okay, you've already got it yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:40

so we have activities set up for the whole year, and so the coach or whoever's in charge of the school will just kind of go off of what's in place in front of them. So we have yeah, we have a main sport and then a couple of different activities like an obstacle course, small motor activity or maybe some like exercise, dyna, band, stretching, stuff like that oh cool. So it's very simple for the coaches now to take on the school and see what they have to do, and you know, they just put their own twist on it. Which is really our strong point is just the coaches themselves, because you can have things on paper, but it's like the person who does the service that really makes the difference.

Speaker 2: 15:18

Yeah, yeah, how are you getting? What are you doing for advertising and marketing? Oh, so I say how are you getting these schools in the door? Yeah, I have a. Are you getting in the door of those schools?

Speaker 1: 15:29

that's right, yeah um, I have a wonderful marketing person who really does a great job. She takes three days out of the week to call about four or five hours because we don't want to just overdo it. Cold calling is tough, Although in that niche it's not as hard, because it's not like you're cold calling us to sell life insurance or anything like that You're just trying to let them know that we exist.

Speaker 2: 15:56

We have an amazing service.

Speaker 1: 15:57

Yeah, there's a need for something like that, that we're there. There's a lot of soccer programs out there. You know that people kind of tend to gravitate to, but what we do is something special and it's different because it gets everybody involved and there's really no, no lack of engagement, you know, whereas, like some, soccer classes can be boring for some kids or they get over it really fast and maybe they're not ready for it you know, in the age that they are in.

Speaker 1: 16:25

so that's how we've been able to get all of our schools either referrals, you know, some teachers or some directors go to different schools. Uh, for the most part we just call, we call, we let them know that we're there. We have a wonderful website. We're pretty active on social media.

Speaker 2: 16:39

How does the social media work when there's kids involved? Can you do a lot of like Well?

Speaker 1: 16:44

we do a lot of promotional videos with kids.

Speaker 2: 16:46

That are have signed up to do this. Yeah, that's smart yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:49

Because it's tough. Yeah, Ten years ago it was a lot harder. Ten years ago everybody was like whoa, no pictures, no videos. But now I feel like, as the years go by, in general, you know, people will be a little bit more open to it, just because everybody loves sharing things online now.

Speaker 2: 17:03

Yeah, I mean your kid's going to end up in the that Tim and Mom posted.

Speaker 1: 17:07

I just kind of learned.

Speaker 2: 17:10

I'm like wait, how did that happen?

Speaker 1: 17:11

Yeah, that's true, yeah, so marketing's been good for us. We also don't want to over what I learned about this business and why I've had to always look for something else to. I mean, as you know, this area. I live in Vienna, right, so Vienna, it's a very pricey area to be in Allon County, wherever you go in this All in Northern Virginia and Maryland.

Speaker 2: 17:32

it's expensive.

Speaker 1: 17:34

So there's a certain cap to this business because every school has a certain time frame that they can have us in. It's not a multimillion dollar business. You're looking at a quarter if anything, if you work really hard. You're looking at a quarter, you know, if anything.

Speaker 1: 17:56

You know if you work really hard you can, you know, pull out a quarter, a quarter of a million a year. So you know, with that being said, I became comfortable with that and just with having that business and having it be fulfilling to me and me having you know, I coach three or four times a week, maybe for two hours, right. So I work about eight hours physically in the schools and then oversee everything else, and then I work on my other projects and just my home, my family. I have two boys now how?

Speaker 2: 18:21

old are the boys now.

Speaker 1: 18:22

One is four and the other one is seven months.

Speaker 1: 18:25

So I spend a lot of time with them, so it's a good balance. My wife is home for most of the time with the little one, so I really can't complain. Yeah, so it's a good balance. Yeah, my wife is home for most of the time with the little one, so I really can't complain. Yeah, so marketing is great and we do always want to do more, but I've learned that sometimes you can get overwhelmed with things, especially in that type of business where it's so you know it's a service-based business, so you got to make sure things are going well, that the coaches are doing a good job, that the schools are happy. I can't really just bring everybody on board and just send them out blindly.

Speaker 2: 18:59

Right, because then it gets. You've got to train them and onboard them. How many coaches do you have?

Speaker 1: 19:06

Right now we have six coaches.

Speaker 2: 19:07

That's good, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:08

Yeah, six coaches, and wonderful, I mean. 90% of them are parents, which is nice. It helps, yeah, because they kind of see nurturing differently and treat the kids differently because they have their own. But yeah, six coaches and I've been very lucky, I mean, they're wonderful, very wonderful group of staff.

Speaker 2: 19:27

Do you guys offer fitness classes for kids just even like outside of the schools?

Speaker 1: 19:30

Do you guys offer fitness classes for kids just even like outside of the schools we do I mean our events that we do outside of school are more like birthday parties.

Speaker 2: 19:36

Okay.

Speaker 1: 19:37

So we do birthday parties for kids. Yeah, it's good because it's a little different than the moon bounce or the I don't even know what people do Gosh.

Speaker 2: 19:45

Yeah, all sorts of things around here, you'd be surprised.

Speaker 1: 19:49

Yeah, We've been to a couple of birthday parties and they've been in the same place, so it's like one of those places that you go and it's like the little kids can run around and venture. I think it's called Jolly who knows Something yeah, we do a fun program outside of our normal classes. We haven't gotten into private. We haven't gotten into one-on-one, we haven't gotten into that. Maybe it's something I'll do in the future, but for now I feel like.

Speaker 2: 20:15

I think it's a good little niche for kids that you know want to be active but aren't necessarily sports inclined. Right but still want something to like a consistent coach and team. You know, that just kind of gets them moving and active yeah. So where do you see yourself going in the next five years?

Speaker 1: 20:35

Where do you see the growth of your company? Well, I'd love to. This year I'm working on an outreach that's more national, so I want to be able to just have something online where parents anywhere in the country can access our program, whether it's for toddlers, whether it's for, you know, like putting on Miss Rachel or putting on Blippi and things like that. Just having something that's accessible for people to just do, either at home with their parents or just for the kids to just watch while they're, you know, winding down before bed or stuff like that, and maybe do some exercises at home. So I'd love to do that, just have more outreach, be able to touch more people and help and just be known as the person who is in charge of the kids fitness stuff in this industry.

Speaker 1: 21:23

And, yeah, just continue to build my coaches up, get them ready for the next phase in their life, because I know that they come and they go and I'm very okay with that. So, yeah, running the business, continuing to run it, maintaining my clients and then grow at a steady pace, but yeah well, it seems like you've got a good head on your shoulders, yeah, yeah, I try. It's been a long journey yeah, a lot of gray hairs more will come yeah are there any last parting words you'd like to leave us with?

Speaker 2: 21:53

business advice? Life, maybe a mantra that you live by?

Speaker 1: 21:56

yeah, I mean I'd like to say is uh, keep your faith, you know, keep your faith that things will, will be okay yeah and, uh, really welcome it all.

Speaker 1: 22:07

You know, I, in my, in my chapter in the book that's coming out, I write to my kids and I'm like you know my boys, I really want you to have a full life. I want you to have heartbreak, I want you to have failures, I want you to have wins, I want you to have losses. I want you to have it all, because that's what having a full life really means, you know so it's not all like great.

Speaker 1: 22:28

It's not all wonderful, it can be Right. It's not all like great, it's not all wonderful, it can be right. But we've got to really appreciate it all yeah. So it's just you know, be appreciative and have faith in yourself. Take opportunities when they arise, because they're always there, always there.

Speaker 2: 22:42

Yeah, and just real quick, tell me about this book again that you're writing.

Speaker 1: 22:46

It's called Dear Younger Me.

Speaker 2: 22:48

Yes.

Speaker 1: 22:48

And it's a project that's um, I'm a part of this group called cla, collected leaders academy okay and it's a book that we came up with just to write to our younger selves, so it's basically to anybody that's younger than us. I love that just to help them. You know, kind of shortcut some things and, yeah, some insight on life and and our beliefs, and what a great legacy to leave for your boys too so we'll be on the lookout for that when it comes out, of course.

Speaker 2: 23:16

Thank you for coming in today.

Speaker 1: 23:18

I loved hearing your story. Thank you, it was a pleasure. Thank you, it was great meeting you. Thank you All right.