IAM023 – Co-Founder and Former Athlete Helps Her Clients Reach Fitness Goals

Christa was a two-sport division scholarship athlete in Women’s Fast-pitch Softball and Women’s Volleyball at George Mason University. After graduating she played with the Connecticut Brakettes, a Women Majors fast-pitch team. In August 2002 Christa made the Greek National Softball Team which won GOLD at the 2003 European Championships B-Pool.

In 2004 she was selected to be an alternate and assistant coach for the team at the OLYMPIC SUMMER GAMES in Athens, Greece. In 2005 she helped the team win an A Pool Silver at the European Championships. In the gym, Christa is known for her sarcasm and her ability to ‘Christa’ people. To be Christa’d is to suddenly finding yourself doing something you had no intention of doing. Not a bad trick for a trainer!

Christa enjoys spending her time off with Jeff and their son Gordon and her twin girls Eleni & Zephera. She loves anything to do with being outdoors.

• CEO Hack: From Good to Great book to learn to deal with employees and grow your companies.
• CEO Nugget: Everybody is replaceable and it's okay to have a change. You as a CEO will always be your best salesperson.
• CEO ReDefined: Bittersweet. Responsibility and always on.

Website: http://www.breakawaycompanies.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BreakawayCompanies/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breakaway_pt/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christa-dalakis-7913127/

Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Christa Dalakis of Breakaway Fitness.

Christa, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Christa Dalakis 0:38

It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

No problem. What I wanted to do was just read a little bit about all the awesome things that Christa is doing so you can learn a little bit more about her.

Christa was a two-sport division one scholarship athlete and Women's Fastpitch Softball and Women's Volleyball at George Mason University. After graduating she played with the Connecticut brackets a women's major FastPitch team in August of 2002. Christa made the Greek national softball team which won gold at the 2003 European Championships B-Pool.

In 2004 she was selected to be an alternate and assistant coach for the team at the Olympic Summer Games in Athens Greece. In 2005 she helped the team win an A Pool Silver at the European Championships. In the gym, Christa is known for her sarcasm and her ability to ‘Christa' people. To be Christad is to suddenly find yourself doing something you had no intention of doing before, which is not a bad trick for being a trainer!

Christa enjoys spending her time with Jeff and their son Gordon and her twins Eleni & Zephera. She loves anything to do with being outdoors. Christa, it is awesome to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Christa Dalakis 1:49

Let's do it.

Gresham Harkless 1:49

Awesome. Well, the first question I had was to ask you if there's anything additional, you want to tell us about your CEO story, and what led you to kind of start your business?

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Christa Dalakis 1:58

Well, I have an interesting story. I actually went to college, not for what I'm doing now. So I wanted to be a sports reporter. I went and worked at ESPN after I graduated college and I was getting paid 6.50 an hour, with no benefits. I looked at myself and I'm like, I'm a college graduate. I'm getting paid 6.50 an hour, and I'm not happy here. So I moved back down to the area from Connecticut, started working at news channel eight and I had an epiphany one day. I looked around the newsroom and I said everybody around me is miserable, including myself and the people who really didn't just love the kind of misery that goes on in the newsroom.

So I decided, right that moment that I was done. I was just going to start doing a training on the side and kind of pursuing a different career. That's kind of how it started. I started doing some training and teaching classes, and I became certified clearly, I was an athlete my whole life and so I have that background. Then the irony is I got fired from my job, so I was like, well, I guess this is the time you know, I called my mom. And I said, Mom, I just got fired from my job. And she says, well, that's the best thing that could have happened to you.

That's kind of how Breakaway Fitness started.

Gresham Harkless 3:15

Hey, that's funny. It's funny how the universe works in that way but it's funny that you mentioned that too, because I always I love sports so much, and I love writing. So I always thought I would be a sports reporter too. But I too knew how lobos wages were. So I said, Maybe I should try to do something else. You're paying with that.

Christa Dalakis 3:31

Just to be clear, though. I wasn't fired for what I did. I didn't do anything wrong. She was mad at who would now be my husband. We worked together. He was my boyfriend at the time, and he had quit. So then she fired me. So just to make that clear, I didn't do anything wrong.

Gresham Harkless 3:48

Good clarification is important. I appreciate you saying that. So could you tell us a little bit more about what you're doing with Breakaway Fitness?

Christa Dalakis 3:54

So we are a private personal training company. For the general population, we do training, and then also we have a strength and conditioning facility for athletes. So we started our business 16 years ago, with personal training and then strength and conditioning for athletes. We started that location nine years ago. So we've been doing it quite a while, we actually have physical locations.

We don't just go to places we work out of our own locations. We love what we do. It's a really fun job kind of get to hang out. We work out motivating others to have a healthy lifestyle and ways to describe our gym. I always say it's the cheers without the beer. I don't know if you know about the TV show Cheers. Yeah, whenever you walk in, everybody knows your name. It's just a really fun place. But there are serious workouts happening.

So it's not only just hardcore but fun.

Gresham Harkless 4:45

Awesome. Yeah, that's huge, especially for a lot of people that may not enjoy working out you know, they kind of see it as something that they dread doing and knowing that it's important but not actually wanting to do it. But obviously having the in creating that environment probably helps out a ton as far as getting people engaged and excited about being healthy and fit.

Christa Dalakis 5:03

Yeah, absolutely. I'd like to say that people always ask me to describe our gym. And you know, I say the cheers without the beer. But the other determining factor is what we've done with our business is that we make anyone feel comfortable. I know that sounds crazy, but nobody cares in our gym. Nobody cares if you're in shape, nobody cares if you're out of shape, nobody cares if you're young, you're old, you're a man, you're a woman.

Nobody really cares about anything. It's just a very nice free atmosphere, and that's why it works so well. People who do care end up not staying because nobody cares.

Gresham Harkless 5:41

Exactly. That's important. So you might have touched on I guess the part about like, what makes you guys unique? Is it just that piece or do you have some other things that you feel like make you unique?

Christa Dalakis 5:51

Well, yeah I'd say it's that piece, it's a really inviting atmosphere. But also, I would say, all our trainers all kind of go through the same training before they start working with clients. So no matter if you were to come train with us, and Joe Schmo the next day, or whomever, the next day, you wouldn't lose a beat. We train all our trainers, so that you can move your schedule around, someone might have a little bit of different personality, obviously, not everybody's as awesome as I am. But that's a joke that's laughing along.

So we do train our trainers, and we base our workouts on science. I know that sounds like what everybody should be doing. But guaranteed not every gym is doing that. It's like, you'll get people who just let me make the craziest hardest workout I can think of, well, that's not really helping anybody if you're not really basing it on anything scientific, or what their goals are.

We always say this, it's easy to make a workout hard, but what are you doing to make that workout better for that person? Does that make sense?

Gresham Harkless 6:58

Yeah, it makes perfect sense. That's awesome especially you mentioned like, if somebody's shift their schedule around, it's like, you're not gonna miss a beat because you can still continue with what you progress on before with another person that you're working with. So it's kind of like, yeah, I guess everybody knows your name and also knows your workout too. So that's a joke as well. Yeah, there you go.

I want to ask you next about what we like to call a CEO hack. So this might be like a resource, a book, or an app that you feel like you use on a regular everyday basis that makes you more efficient and effective as a CEO.

Christa Dalakis 7:31

So I was told by another CEO many years ago to read the book From Good to Great, I don't know if you've read that book. It's a great book. And for me, what I've always said, and I love talking to other business owners, and it doesn't really matter what business, all businesses go through the same crap, it doesn't matter what your business is guaranteed, you all go through the same crap.

So when I was reading this book, and you know, they base the stories of this book on big fortune 500 companies. What I took away from it was not every employee is meant to be the CEO, or the manager, or whatever you want to say, you kind of try to guide your employees to where their strengths are. Because not everybody's management material, not everybody is, you know, just to work or be material, some people don't even deserve to like be working, that they should just be managing, because they can't do the day to day operation kind of thing.

So that book really kind of took our business from just being you know, a mom-and-pop shop to learning how to deal with employees and growing the business with the employees.

Gresham Harkless 8:40

Yeah, and I mean, that's great insight because it's kind of like knowing thyself, so understanding where your strengths are, but also understanding your employees or contractors or people on your team, understanding what their strengths and weaknesses are, so you can kind of put them in the best place to be successful.

So the next question I want to ask you was for like a CEO, nugget. This might be a word of wisdom or piece of advice or something that you wish that you knew, as a younger business owner,

Christa Dalakis 9:03

I actually have a couple because I've learned the hard way. So I will try to be brief, but a couple of things are number one everybody is replaceable. I used to think that this person couldn't be replaced, but I've learned that everybody is replaceable. When things change, it's okay because usually it kind of works out for the better because this person left because they were unhappy, or this person left, just because they moved the area or whatever the case may be.

It usually works out and I used to think oh my gosh, I can't lose this person. I gotta throw more money at him. I gotta give him this. And really what I learned is the more I gave them and never got any better, so everybody's replaceable, and going along that route is you should always be prepared to replace someone.

Gresham Harkless 9:54

Yeah, that's huge. Just because, as you said, you always have to be thinking ahead and understand the meaning that you can't be afraid to maybe get rid of somebody or even probably move somebody in a different place if it doesn't work out, and it might turn out to be a better situation. And then like you said, people's lives change, people move, things happen, and people get other offers.

So you also have to be prepared for that person to leave as well.

Christa Dalakis 10:17

Absolutely. The other thing I learned, just, you know, this is our business too, which is, you know, it is a sales business. But hopefully, it sells itself that if you're talking to any CEO. I've said this before, is that you as the business owner will always be your best salesperson, I don't care who you hire to do any kind of selling, you will always be your best salesperson, it doesn't matter. Because you know your business, you believe in your business, and you believe in what you do, you will automatically sell your business better than anybody else.

So when you say I want to hire this, that, or the other, you are always going to be your best salesperson. That's my other little nugget, I guess.

Gresham Harkless 10:58

Yeah, that's huge. And like a lot of people that start businesses or start startups, in organizations, a lot of it is coming from a passion. So that kind of spills over into like the sales arena where you're so passionate about what it is that you're doing, and you saw maybe a gap or an opportunity that you want to kind of tell the world. So when you bring that person on or you hire that person, they don't necessarily have that same passion. So it may not necessarily be able to kind of replicate that. So I think those are phenomenal points.

So one of the next things I wanted to ask you is we get the opportunity to have different types of CEOs on this podcast, whether it be startups or people that have big, huge fortune 500 companies. So I wanted to ask you, what does being a CEO mean, for you?

Christa Dalakis 11:36

Wow, what does it mean for me? Pain? Yeah. Can we pass it on? No, you know, it's a bittersweet place to be right. So some days, you just want to walk away, like you don't want to deal with managing others, you're responsible for their salaries, you're responsible for people and their health benefits, and this, that, and the other, and sometimes you just like, want to escape. But on the other hand, again, the same analogy is the beauty of that too, right? That you've created this thing, and that you are responsible for other people, and you are making other people's lives better. Doing this just as the CEO, you know, your employees, you give them you know, great benefits, you make it a fun environment for them to go every day.

So I mean, would I have it any other way? No. Or some days? Do you want it the other way? Yeah, you want to go home and not have to stress about, oh, my gosh, are we going to make it enough for everybody's salary? Or, you know, do we need more clients? Or do we need to do A, B, and C and you're constantly thinking about it? And sometimes you just want to like go to work and then leave right? As you know, you're a CEO, sometimes, you're constantly going in, and other people might not even realize they think oh, well, they're not working, they're off doing whatever, but you're always working when you're CEO.

I'm on my bicycle and ride my bike for my exercise. And what am I doing? I'm thinking about my next thing or whatever I'm doing for work tomorrow, whatever it is like to help this that, or the other, and it's never-ending. I don't know if I answered your question.

Gresham Harkless 13:17

Yeah, I mean, I definitely think you did. I mean, about like that honest perspective of it, because I've always seen it as like a roller coaster ride because there are incredible highs but there also can be incredible lows and it's definitely you know, a nonstop roller coaster. So I definitely would agree with that.

Christa Dalakis 13:30

Yeah, and I've thought a lot about you know, you go through some tough times with like employees or whatever and there have been times where I'm just like, I'm done. I'm just gonna to get a nine to five. Yeah, those tough times. Sometimes, you know, you got to just push through and just keep plugging along, right, because there's going to be you know, tough times with everything in life.

Gresham Harkless 13:53

Yeah, it's very true in a lot of times, the people that become the most successful aren't necessarily any smarter or have better skills, so to speak. They just have a kind of persistence and they kind of stick with it and ride through the ups and downs and sad the sights and everything else that comes with owning a business.

Christa Dalakis 14:09

Right.

Gresham Harkless 14:10

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Christa, I truly appreciate you taking some time out of your schedule. I wanted to give you the floor or give you the mic so to speak one more time to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know lastly, how people can get a hold of you?

Christa Dalakis 14:24

Gosh, what else can I say about running a business in the fitness business? I will say this as I always try to tell trainers when they first come interview the fitness because I know you're doing a lot of fitness interviews. The fitness business is not for everyone and a couple of reasons is that you are working all early mornings or late evenings and on weekends. That's the business because people are working out when they're not at their office job right?

The other thing I always say because my husband and I run this business together, if you want a family does not go into the office. There's this with your husband. And I will say that in a bad way in the sense of we can't get along. It's more with these crazy hours, it is virtually impossible to have a family without hired help and family help to help you get your kids go to A, B, and C because they need to go to A, B, and C when you're training people. It's really challenging to do it together. I know that's very appealing for some, but I'd say if you don't want a family, more power to you, it is very challenging if you want a family.

My direct email is christa@breakawayfitness.com or you can just find us on the internet breakawayfitness.com and just reach out if you just want to talk, shop too. I love that I love talking shop with business owners. It is really fun for me. So I'm up for that as well.

Gresham Harkless 15:50

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Christa, I truly appreciate the great and awesome things that you've been able to do and accomplish, and anybody that does want to follow up with you. We will have your information in the show notes. But thank you so much again.

Christa Dalakis 16:01

Thank you.

Outro 16:02

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Thank you for listening

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