3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!
HAPPY 3'RD ANNIVERSARY HIXON FITNESS
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HAPPY 3'RD ANNIVERSARY HIXON FITNESS 〰️
3 years in business! Thank you for your support!
This blog post will be just a bit different compared to our normal submissions. I want to use this opportunity to celebrate the last 3 years that we have been serving our community, and share a bit on how we got here! August of 2020, we launched Hixon Fitness & Athletics with a vision and a purpose. We were met head on with the Covid-19 pandemic, and faced what might historically be one of, if not THE, worst time to work in the fitness industry. We didn’t set out to start a gym in the pandemic, but it was the hand we were dealt, and I believe it’s ok to say now that we made it work! Over the last 3 years we have shared ups, and downs, with our community of dedicated members who have supported our vision for Hixon Fitness. My family is humbled by the support and patronage we have received since we opened the gym, and cannot adequately put words to the gratitude we have for you all.
“THEN”
Some background on myself first.I have been in the fitness industry now for approximately 15 years, and coaching for 12 of them. I was hired to work for a local recreation center after graduating high school. To keep it brief, it was baptism by fire and I was tossed in the mix to learn as I go. We can call these the “character building years”. I was able to work with bootcamps of 75-80 people at a time, sometimes even more. These were specifically focused on weight-loss which provided a vast variety of clients with an even greater spread of risk factors to be aware of. Fast forward, I fell in love with helping others reach fitness goals through these camps and decided it was time to level-up. I landed a position as a fledgling trainer at a local boutique studio named 360 Personal Fitness. It was love at first sight! The passion for my work fueled my efforts, and before long I had a list of client success stories and was managing the training department after one short year of tenure. I took on a role soon after as General Manager of a Total Nutrition shop and it wasn’t long after I was recruited by the local Gold’s gym to help run their PT department. Things seemed to be going great, but I still wasn’t fulfilled.
My goals lead me to take on greater challenges in the corporate fitness scene. Within 6 months I was a nationally recognized performer and getting offers to manage locations in the South Central Texas regions. I deferred higher leadership positions to finish my degree (better late than never lol), and after wrapping up my undergraduate education I earned a role as a General Manager for the local HealthLink gym (resolute health gym). I left HealthLink for what might be the most refreshing experience after a decade of gym hopping to work in Austin at the Downtown Lifetime location. If I had to put on a finger on why, it had to be that I was surrounded by a team of like-minded and equally driven fitness professionals. Plus it was great fun getting to focus on clients and their fitness again. I like to think that all of these experiences, both good and bad, have shaped me as both a fitness and business professional, and provided a unique look at the gym life. Still, I wanted more.
After 15 years, dozens of opportunites, hundreds of coaching clients, and thousands of workouts, one thing has never changed; my inate need to have my own gym.
They say luck is simply when “preparation meets opportunity.” I do believe that our story embodies that quote pretty well. We were given our shot to take the entreprenuership plunge in August 2020. Some gyms were closed by government mandates, and others were suffering social distancing requirements, capacity restrictions, and a handul of other policies that crippled the industry. Frankly it was a bleak time to be a fitness professional, maybe worse to be a gym owner….. but “Fortune favors the bold” as they say. We had heard through the grapevine that our local SNAP Fitness was planning to close soon and liquidate their equipment. At this point, gyms were slowly beginning to open again, but having a tough time recovering from the damage the covid shutdowns caused. My wife and I talked about it for a long time, prayed about it even longer, and decided we had nothing to lose to just have the conversation and learn what the purchase terms were. Honestly, I didn’t expect much to come from it, but it was hard to hide my excitement.
We investigated to see if this was a project we could take on, and if it would be worth it. It was. Within a mere 35 days, we formed a business plan, deployed a website, put our branding package into action, built a team, proposed our plan, received funding, and struck a lease agreement for the space… all with just under 24 hours left on our deadline. Hixon Fitness & Athletics was born on 8/1/2020 for our first day in business.
“All parties are in agreement? Let’s do this.”
Rebranding was our first priority alongside growth in membership. Over the first few weeks, we worked to reshape the facility, sort out the inventory, and make this building work for us the way we wanted it to. Most equipment stayed, but some needed to go to make room for the coaching tools our team would need to succeed. Note that the pandemic is still going strong and toilet paper costs are eclipsing the total price of a barrel of crude oil. We were patient with the supply chain and we eventually received all of our equipment.
BEFORE THE REBRAND
This gallery has some original photos of the facility before we took over, and pictures of what we started with in the first couple of weeks. No complaints, starting turn-key meant we were operational from the jump! We just wanted it to feel like “ours” after waiting for so long for an opportunity to do things our way.
REBRANDING, AND THE ROAD TO GRAND OPENING
This gallery of pictures features the rebranding process, and our time leading up to the grand opening! We gained fast support from our community, and our team grew right off the bat. We had some fun events for our members too, such as bootcamps and challenges. Within a few months we had a working gym! Memberships were up, we gained some momentum, launched our training app, and become more focused as the path to our vision became more clear by the day. Since opening, we have finally wrapped up remodeling and will receive our final equipment additions this year!
You can see our current gym gallery here for a look at the current layout.
THE GRAND OPENING
It seemed like everything fell into place, and not a moment too soon. We received and installed our final pieces of equipment from our start-up budget with just 8 days to go until the grand opening. Our Food Bank fundraiser, “Burpees for Turkeys” brought in enough to provide approx 9300 meals to families in need during Thanksgiving. We had dozens of community members, family, and friends drop in to support our launch. It was really a great day, and our family was so humbled by the support we received from you all.
November 2020
“NOW”
Fast forward. It’s 2023 and we are here celebrating 3 years of member experience excellence, crushing fitness goals, and working our hardest to be the best damn gym around. We have some of the nicest and most dedicated members New Braunfels has to offer, a stone cold team of highly educated and intuitive personal trainers, and an innovative support system that is causing our clients to reach their goals faster than anticipated! Ourservices have growin to include;
24/7 member only access
Mobile Training app
STYKU 3D body composition scans
Personal Training for all goals
Nutrition Coaching and Meal Planning
Virtual Coaching
Training Bundles - combines all services for the best support system
The Hixon Fitness & Athletics mission hasn’t changed. We will deliver results producing programs and provide an excellent member experience. The vision has always been clear, even if the view of the path here wasn’t.
The big question though, is what helped us succeed?
My personal belief is that the weights are heavy and the water is wet at any location you lift at. No gym is really THAT much different when you get to the bottom line. What makes a gym special however is the culture, the team, and the members inside. We have fostered a culture of success by setting goals, and creating measurable plans to achieve them. Every member that joins Hixon Fitness is provided a chance to meet with a coach for a free body composition scan using our Styku 3D technology. Our team of coaches break down the scans and make sure that our members have identifiable goals, and an honest look at their baseline data before getting to work on their fitness goals. We do it because we want ALL of our members, basic access and coaching clients, to realize the change in their bodies, mind, and spirit when they finally connect the right dots. Here are just a few examples of our members who have had insane results since they joined our gym!
IVETTE A.
Click the image to read her testimony!
MELISSA G.
Click the image to read her testimony!
COLTON E.
Click the image to read his testimony!
As of August 2023, I believe we have never had a stronger group of coaches on our team to help our members achieve what they came here for. Hixon Coaches are held to a high standard from the first interview, to continuing their education, and pushed to consitently grow in our ever changing industry. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting the team, they are pictured below, and they are always ready to meet for a fitness consultation to discuss your goals. As I stated before, the associates and our culture is what sets our gym apart from the competition. This team sets the bar for what a client should expect from a coach, and they genuiniely care about the results their clients get. To my team, thank you for always giving me, your clients, and most importantly yourself your best efforts everytime. You guys are the backbone of our operation. Keep kicking ass and changing lives :)
The Hixon family cannot thank or community, members, friends, and loved ones enough for the consistent support of our business.We have shared alot of mile-stones with our team and gym family since we opened our doors. Our family has grown, our team has grown, our gym has grown, and we have all grown personally. Everything takes a village these days, and ours showed up for us when we needed it most. From all of us, we are forever grateful for your support, patronage, and encouragement these past 3 years.
Here’s to MANY more years helping you get healthy, and stay healthy.
Much Love,
The Hixon Family
Jake, Kathleen, Benjamin, William, Ron, and Ana Hixon