He Spent 30 Years Training Adults. Then His Son Was Born | Joe Pedatella, KidStrong

Joe Pedatella walked into Spa 23 in New Jersey as a trainer in 1998. He ended up owning it. For nearly 30 years his job was changing adults' habits, one person at a time. Then his son was born, and the question changed. A friend in his mastermind group found KidStrong. Joe flew down to meet one of the founders, vetted the brand for eight months, and planned to open one location a year for five years. Five and a half years later he has 20 open and a 61-unit agreement. In this episode of The Exit Plan, Alex Smereczniak sits down with Joe Pedatella, largest developer of KidStrong, to trace how an independent gym owner became a multi-state franchisee. Joe explains why "stay in the box" was the best advice he got, why his mature centers do roughly $1.2M to $1.5M a year while newer ones are still ramping, and why his first opening hit 709 members against a corporate presale mark of 389. His most contrarian point: you cannot open locations faster by working seven times harder, and if location 21 makes locations 1 through 20 weaker, that is not successful growth. You'll hear: - Why the cheap site costs more, and what Joe checks before signing a lease: visibility, traffic, kid demographics and a pro forma - The "I do, we do, they do" framework for what changes at 5, 25 and more locations, and why Joe runs his org horizontally instead of vertically - How the team set its own goal of 100 centers, and the "80 more to go" comment when number 20 opened - His most expensive mistake in 30 years: waiting too long on a people issue. His rule now is patient with people, impatient with patterns Chapters (00:00:00) Intro (00:00:38) Why KidStrong, and the son behind it (00:04:12) Stay in the box (00:06:15) Franchising is not mailbox money (00:09:20) Leadership, systems, site selection (00:12:16) Your job changes at five locations (00:17:43) Sites and what separates top centers (00:22:00) Why 61 units and the 709-member opening (00:26:34) Opening fast without quality slipping (00:33:51) Quick hitters Connect with Joe: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-pedatella-91845163/ The Exit Plan: Follow on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-exit-plan/id1814643428 Follow on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46Fegpnlum8YtWUuuCnoiF Get your free Franchise Fit Score and see what your capital actually buys in franchising: https://franzy.com/questions/user-onboarding Find your perfect franchise, free: https://franzy.com Follow Alex: https://instagram.com/alexfromfranzy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-smereczniak-40310329/ Enjoying the show? Tap Follow in your podcast app so next week's episode shows up automatically, and leave a rating if this one earned it. The Exit Plan is a Franzy podcast, hosted by Franzy co-founder and CEO Alex Smereczniak.