10 Years Strong
I sat down to write this without any plan or idea of what I would say. After 10 years I just felt like reminiscing and since people always ask about how we started I thought I would start there.
Looking back on 10 years it blows my mind how quickly it has gone by and what CFA has blossomed into today. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without the support of so many people along the way. Something we are truly thankful for.
Pre-CFA
“Beginnings always hide themselves in endings.”
June 2013: our dad passed away from Melanoma skin cancer.
This was the event that set CFA in motion. Going through such a tough event at such a young age (21 & 18) puts life into perspective. Being so young was maybe a disadvantage when it came to running a business, but then again, when at other times in your life do you have the freedom to pursue a dream like that? At that point, we had been doing CrossFit for 2-3 years (shout-out to CrossFit Ignition) and wanted to share it with as many people as we could. We knew that was something Ken would be proud of.
To this day, I still don’t remember how I found the listing for the empty warehouse space. Since we are from the East side of Michigan, West Michigan (Allendale) wasn’t even in our minds. Some things are just fate. On a snowy December day, Kate and I made the drive to see the building. After we got some Chipotle and both just said “Yup, that is it.”
Within 2 months after that, we had moved two hours from home and rented a 7,500 square-foot warehouse and filled it ⅓ of the way full with equipment. We were relying on our passion to carry us because we had ZERO clients, ZERO connections, no bikes, no shelving, and no organization… Far from the well “polished” version of CFA, you see today.
The first months of the first year were rough. The first day we opened we had three people come in, the entire day…. The whole first summer we had less than five members. We ran so many classes that had 1 or 2 people. Heck, I remember coaching one morning and nobody showed up at 6, 7, or 8 am and I just kept going back to sleep on the gym couch. Reflecting, I am not sure why we didn’t have a class sign-up, but then again we had no idea what we were doing.
(CFA’s first ever class)
I don’t remember exactly when we caught some steam or started to grow but I know that first year was a grind. Thankfully we found some amazing people who have stuck with us since 2014. Jenn, Brookelyn, Kevin, Mark & Heather are the very first five who come to mind, all have been with us since at least July 2014…. Ask them some stories about the beginning and they will tell you some good ones.
Here are some of my best memories with them:
I remember doing the first basics class with Jenn and she was so timid she wouldn’t even look at what the workout was, she would just hide around the corner.
I remember I was trying to get Brookelyn into a handstand at 6:00 in the morning and she looked at me like I was nuts. We ended up scaling the handstand push-ups to normal push-ups. She was the only person who would show up for our 6am for a solid year (if she didn’t oversleep..).
Kevin showing up 15 minutes late for his first class, didn’t fill out a waiver, but managed to complete 24 rounds on “Cindy” during his first CrossFit workout… A month later he crushed everyone at the GVSU Fittest Laker competition wearing the OG CFA neon shirt.
Mark came in with one of his co-workers from Bizstream and they were so gung-ho about getting started I couldn’t believe it. We ended up doing a lunchtime intro for all the employees and only two or three came back after that… Bizstream has supported us more than any other place these last 10 years and we are beyond grateful for those guys (Mark, Brian, Dave, Ruby, and Kren)
I remember Heather coming in after saying she just ran like 8 miles and I was like wow this lady is a machine. She probably went home, walked the dog, cooked dinner and vacuumed after that.
More amazing, inspiring people came along the next few years after that, and I couldn’t name them all if I tried. But just know if you started with us before 2017 and are still with us today that we thank you so much for your support of CFA.
It is true what everyone tells you, “time flies”. We have had highs and lows, weddings, funerals, food workouts (donut and wing challenges), COVID, and everything else in between. We are so blessed to be as strong as ever 10 years later, even after seeing numerous gyms fail during hard times. Something about CFA is different, we are truly a family. We look forward to seeing each other at 5:00 am or staying late to drink brews and finish puzzles. I don’t know if that’s due to passion or luck or maybe a mix of both, whatever it is, we are grateful.
My sister is my best friend, and my business partner, there are not enough words to say how lucky I am to have her by my side in life. I would say nowadays we are as close as ever. Rachel has been with us every step of the way as well, as my girlfriend, fiance & wife she supported the vision since day 1 and even moved two hours away from home as well right as we started. She has been a huge supportive piece of the journey as well. I’m very lucky to have those two women in my life.
As a 22-year-old kid, if you would have asked me about CFA 10 years in the future it would have blown my mind. We grew, met so many amazing people, and had thousands of kick-ass workouts. We have seen so many people get healthy and make a huge difference in their lives. CrossFit is the best workout program without a doubt and we will be flying that flag for the rest of our lives. I’m not sure what the next 10 years will hold, but whatever they do we are ready to tackle them.
If you read this far into my ramblings then you must have been a part of it, and to that, I just personally want to say THANK YOU.
– Coach Josh
