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4F Coaching Hit $40,000 a Month in their First Six Months in Business
Written by Emily Beers
The story for most small gym owners goes like this: They come from a training background and are passionate about helping others get fit. So they open a gym, thinking, ‘How hard can it be to run a gym?’

A year, two years, three years later, they eat their thoughts, as they realize they don’t have the slightest clue about running a business. (At this point, they have made all kinds of mistakes that could have been avoided and the business is struggling).

Realizing they need help, they seek out a business mentor to show them a better way. 
Well, this is not TJ and Jess Gehring’s story.
How it Started
OK, first off, both TJ and Jess did start out as personal trainers. 

During COVID, Jess started building a book of remote clients, and when Anytime Fitness, where TJ worked, shut down, he, too, turned to online coaching.

Having been involved in the fitness industry since 2013, TJ had seen a lot of things in the fitness industry that “pissed me off,” he explained.

“I didn’t really like the industry. I got into it to help people, and most gyms aren’t helping people. They’re just locking people into long-term contracts and making it just hard enough that they can’t cancel, and not really giving the support and guidance they need,” he said of his experience working in various facilities.

He wanted to do it differently, and so began his dream to open a gym “that actually helps people and doesn’t just sell memberships and throws people out there to figure it out for themselves,” he explained. 

This is where TJ and Jess’ story diverges from the norm.

Through his years in fitness, TJ was always trying to plug himself in with “people who are a lot smarter than me,” he explained.

Along the way he came across ProFit gym business mentors Tim Lyons and Randy Angsten, who he started following on social media. 

And when TJ heard Lyons and Angsten were hosting a Growth Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, he and Jess decided it might be the perfect event to attend to learn a bit more about the business of gym ownership before they take the plunge. 

TJ and Angsten connected right away, and Angsten sort of took TJ under his wing.

“I jumped on a series of calls with Randy…and he really did save me…I wasn’t paying these guys any money. I wasn’t invested in the Iron Circle. He didn’t ask for anything. He didn’t plug the Iron Circle. He just said, ‘I don’t want to see you fail, brother, so do it like this,’” TJ said of Angsten’s generosity. 

TJ and Jess listened to all Angsten had to say, and it quickly became a no-brainer to open a semi-private training gym, a model they said they never would have considered had they not followed Lyons and Angsten’s guidance.

In the spring of 2023, the couple opened the doors at 4F Coaching in Graham, Washington. Two months later, they were already grossing more than $20,000 a month.

And just four months after opening their doors, TJ and Jess go the invite the join 
ProFit’s Iron Circle, an exclusive mastermind group made up of high-earning small gym owners ($30,000 a month is the minimum). 

They admit they were a bit intimidated at first, and wondered if they belonged in the Iron Circle yet. But less than a year-and-a-half later, they said the decision to join the Iron Circle when they did—right out of the gates—has made all the difference to their business.
The Iron Circle: Three Key Takeaways
1. Quick Acceleration Through Systems
While 4F Coaching had some quick growth, TJ and Jess knew they would soon hit a plateau if they weren’t proactive and didn’t begin actively marketing and using automations.

TJ and Jess credit the Iron circle for helping them get their digital ads going, and automated lead nurturing through the CLA (Client Lifecycle Automation), ProFit’s software that automatically nurtures leads through the sales funnel ensuring nobody gets forgotten about. 

As a result of their continued growth thanks to the systems they learned to put in place through the Iron Circle, their income jumped to $40,000 a month in the first 90 days after joining the Iron Circle, and they have been able to at least maintain these numbers every month since. 

“There’s no way I could have done it without the systems they provided,” TJ said.
2. Avoiding Mistakes
Possibly an even bigger takeaway from being part of the Iron Circle right from the early days of gym ownership was being able to learn from other gym owners and avoiding the mistakes they made, Jess explained. 

"We hear the mistakes that people have made along the way and how they’re still suffering, recovering from all of it, and we’re like, ‘Phew, thank goodness we didn’t do that," Jess said.

Further, being surrounded by gym owners provides them with the support and camaraderie they don’t get elsewhere in their lives.

“A lot of our friends aren’t business owners…so just that camaraderie you get to have within this group, you don’t find that in your day-in-day out friends that you have. And that right there, to me, is one of the more invaluable parts of it,” Jess added.
3. Work on the Business, Not in It
Most recently, TJ underwent hip replacement surgery and needed to take a step back from on-floor coaching.

Thanks to the Iron Circle, the business was in a place where TJ was able to step back from coaching and take on more of a business management role when he needed to. And once he has fully recovered, he can go back to coaching, not because he needs to, but because he loves coaching. 

“That was an integral thing we have learned from the IC was (the importance of) taking a step outside of the business to work on it, and not in it,” Jess added.
Where They are Today
Two years into gym ownership, TJ and Jess have anywhere between 109 and 120 semi-private clients who pay between $320 and $500 a month, depending on the membership option they choose ($79.99 or $99.99 weekly billing).

They have a staff of five, plus themselves, and they consistently gross more than $40,000 a month.
Their Message
To the new gym owner, TJ and Jess couldn’t be more adamant: Get business coaching right from the start. 

And although they were scared to join the Iron Circle so soon—”It was terrifying, I didn’t think we could afford it,” TJ said—the return on investment was immediate, they said. 

“If we waited one more year, we would have made a lot more mistakes and we’re going to have to undo them,” Jess said. 

Jess added: “Every part of us is thankful for the Iron Circle.”
What if you could skip the struggle and scale faster—just like TJ and Jess?

They joined the Iron Circle just two months into gym ownership and hit $40K/month in 90 days. No guesswork. No wasted time. Just the right support from day one.

👉 Book a free strategy call and find out if ProFit is the right move for your gym—whether you’re just starting out or ready to level up.
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