CrossFit Thunder Hill prides itself on its strong community, high-quality coaching, and commitment to creating lasting friendships that start in the gym and grow beyond its walls.
Born out of the CrossFit Delaware Valley community led by long-time Seminar Staff member Rob Miller, CrossFit Thunder Hill is a positive force in southeast Pennsylvania. Its owners, John and Jill Wallen, are dedicated ambassadors of the CrossFit community and its methodology.
“Our mission is to help our community get ‘better!'” they explain on their website. “By better we mean – healthier, fitter, more confident, more flexible, stronger, smarter and happier. To do this, we are providing an awesome, supportive and friendly fitness environment where you will achieve things that you never thought you could and you will push yourself to places you never knew existed. You will feel better, you will look better, you will be better!”
How has your affiliate dealt with the pandemic? Do you have any tips for other affiliate owners?
The pandemic has affected us tremendously this past year. Just like boxes all over the world, we have been closed, then open, then closed again … then open again; we have had Zoom classes, allowed our members to borrow equipment for home use, instituted mandatory cleaning protocols, we have monitored air quality, and we have lost and gained members. It really has been a crazy year. Our philosophy of how to deal with the madness was to be open, honest, and truly care about our members. We are a relatively small box, and we made sure that we listened to each member’s concerns and tried to address them directly. No judgment. We truly believe that the CrossFit methodology saves lives, and we are trying to show our members that the healthier you are, the less some crazy virus or chronic disease will affect you.
If you had an extra $1,000 each month in your budget, what would you use it for? If you had to reduce your expenses by $1,000 each month, what would you cut?
If we had an extra $1,000 each month in our budget, we would definitely like to buy more equipment. While we certainly do not think you need all of the flashy new gadgets to be a successful CrossFit box, it would be nice be able to add, replace, or upgrade broken or worn-out equipment without worrying about the budget.
If we had to reduce our expenses by $1,000 each month, we would cut our rent. We would love to own our own building one day. We are really lucky to have a good landlord. We think it would be great to have more of a total ownership over the whole business.
Tell us about one of your proudest moments as an affiliate owner.
Whenever we have a gym party or a gathering outside of the gym and we take a step back and see the awesome community we have, it amazes us and definitely makes us proud. It’s amazing to see the friendships that have been formed with and between our members — not to mention how much they have all been there for us in and out of the gym!
Describe an important inflection point in the growth of your affiliate. When did you feel like you had a good grasp of the business and know you could make a career of it?
From day one we wanted to be in this business for a long time. It was about a year or so into our affiliation when we realized that our community would allow us to actually do it. Shortly after that, we sat down and made the conscious decision to focus on quality, not quantity. We didn’t want to sacrifice our goal of a good community, good relationships, and good classes/class sizes for a certain size of membership or a certain income. Looking back over the past eight-plus years, we think focusing on our community over profits was the right decision for us.
Tell us about an important learning experience.
Don’t get too caught up in what other gyms are doing. We learned to trust our instincts, knowledge, and goals so we can stay on the path that is right for us, our coaches, and our members. Focus on your members and what they need to be fit. Everything else will fall in line.
What excites you about CrossFit’s future?
We are really excited about CrossFit’s focus on the affiliate. The whole purpose of CrossFit is to make a healthier, happier world. We do that through each affiliate. We know how to do it, but helping us reach more people is definitely a plus.
How do you plan to adapt your business to thrive in an evolving fitness landscape?
We have practiced “old school” CrossFit methodology from day one. We believe in it, and we know it works so we will always continue to follow it. Sure, we have tweaked our approach to some things along the way, but our foundation will always be the CrossFit methodology. Maybe this approach will be detrimental in the long run, but why change something when it works.
If you could offer one piece of advice to someone starting a new affiliate right now, what would it be?
Focus on your members. Do not get hung up on having all of the new equipment, having 5,000 members in the first month, being the biggest gym in the world right away. Get all the knowledge you possibly can and pour it into each member. We are here to change people’s lives for the better. Be the best hour of their day. Success will follow. That being said, get ready for some hard work and sleepless nights. There are a lot of highs but also some lows. Stick with it, learn from your mistakes, and continue to get better. Patience and trusting the process helps.
Some responses may have been edited for clarity or length.
Q&A With Jill and John Wallen of CrossFit Thunder Hill