Full Circle

You can read our weekly newsletter here.

As many of you know already, we have some news.

We will be closing the Mill Valley location on Dec 31st, after 12.5 years of business at that location. ALL PROGRAMMING WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE END OF 2022 (see more on that below).

Since the pandemic shut downs in March of 2020, our Corte Madera location has been thriving. The outdoor area there allows for a full and spacious outdoor gym, we absorbed some of our existing membership from our old San Rafael location, and we have exceptional senior coaches who didn’t miss a beat and have worked solely out of Corte Madera for the duration of the pandemic. In contrast, Mill Valley’s outdoor space does not offer the scope of what Corte Madera can, and we have struggled to staff a full schedule over the past two years. Oh, and the weather!

Although gut-wrenching, our decision to close Mill Valley will allow us to do what’s best for our gym community and our family, and will enable us to concentrate on, and deliver, the quality of coaching and programming you have come to expect from TJ’s Gym and that we demand of ourselves and our brand.

We will be expanding the Corte Madera class and open-gym schedule, and I will be coaching and otherwise on the gym floor much more often than I have been over the past couple of years. Hopefully, this comes as good news.

I’ll be writing a blog for our Mill Valley community in the future, but today’s blog is more about my journey over the last fifteen years.

In 2007, we made a decision to grow the business.

Until that I point, I was teaching almost all of the classes and conducting all new-client intros, while also carrying a full schedule of personal training.

The thought was to take advantage of the growing CrossFit popularity and to be first to market in our part of Marin.

Over the next couple of years, we opened three more locations and were successful in becoming a leader in the industry of non-machine, functional, community-based fitness.

I adopted a growth mindset.

I moved from trainer and coach to founder and CEO, a path I embraced.

The adrenaline was constant, as was the desire to do and be more.

There were thoughts of opening dozens of studios.

There were thoughts of running multiple fitness competitions worldwide. (We had created the most recognized and successful fitness competition for Masters athletes worldwide, so there was a track record).

We took full advantage and pushed the limits of our capacity as a young family.

With the success, I began searching for what I was “supposed” to be doing, as I though I was always supposed to be striving for the next opportunity.

In the past couple of years, I grappled with the concept of empty nest and told myself that being aggressive with my forward-thinking would reveal my next phase.

Sure, the pandemic shifted the business, but I still was looking at the horizon and doing a bunch of work to find out what the next opportunity would be and how my next chapter would unfold.

Recently, everything slowed down.

I listened to people suggesting that simplicity is sometimes the answer.

I focused on the present more than the future and embraced my most treasured, productive, and generative role outside husband and father: COACH.

With Allison’s urging, I’m fully embracing my innate ability with people, combined with an adult lifetime of learned and hard-won expertise. My mission is to help people get better. Whether it’s in small groups or individually.

I have an eye and an ear and 30 years of experience that allows me to confidently offer a plan or suggestion or the truth. I’m not a miracle worker, but I do help people become better versions of themselves.

I’ve started coaching more classes and taking on more personal training.

I’ve noticed that since we made the decision to close the MV gym, I am more at ease.

The distractions of marketing, payroll, hiring, scheduling and overhead have subsided.

I’ve been able to do what I do really well, the job that built this venture in the first place and built the community we all enjoy.

I am very much looking forward to the upcoming next year. There will be loss, but the excitement to offer the best possible quality is almost keeping me up at night, in the best ways possible.

Until the doors close on December 31st in Mill Valley, you will be able to count on our commitment to making those classes and workouts the best hour of your day. We will have a full teen and tween schedule for our fall youth session, a thriving program we’re excited to continue. Long-term, our hope is that many of you who frequent the Mill Valley location will eventually move with us to our Corte Madera location. There’s plenty of room, and there will be classes at almost every hour of the day, both indoors and outdoors. We also have a separate space for personal training in Corte Madera. We’re excited about the possibilities!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you at the gym!

TJ