Decisions That Made Me – Joey Gonzalez (Barry’s)
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 615 Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Joey Gonzalez took his first class at Barry’s, West Hollywood, he says “it was love at first sweat”. The music, night-club vibe and high-intensity workout was life-changing.
Joey was convinced he could expand the fitness brand beyond Los Angeles. So, he worked his way up through the company, starting as an instructor and becoming CEO in 2015 - creating Barry’s studios across the US and around the world. And even now, as Executive Chairman, Joey still leads a workout. He tells Evan Davis why his background in musical theatre and performing arts is ideal for being a Barry’s “entertrainer”.
(Image: Joey Gonzalez. Credit: Barry's)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | My Christmas Mix is pure 90s festive nostalgia. |
| 0:11.1 | You know, the Christmas songs you listen to on repeat. |
| 0:14.0 | Ho! |
| 0:14.3 | Ho! Ho! No, no, no. |
| 0:17.5 | I'm all about the big hitting Christmas anthems. |
| 0:20.4 | Come on, guys. What about those tunes that really slay? It's Christmas kitchen disco season, surely. |
| 0:26.4 | Give me hip-hip-christmas bangers every day. Those Christmas tracks that are straight out of Lapland. |
| 0:30.9 | Get all kinds of Christmassy. Just search Christmas music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.8 | Hello, it's always fascinating to see how some of our most successful business leaders |
| 0:40.1 | began their careers. Most don't just join their companies at boardroom level. Some began on the |
| 0:46.8 | shop floor or the factory line and they worked their way up, the corporate ladder to the top. Like |
| 0:52.3 | Tesco's former chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy, who |
| 0:55.3 | started his career at the supermarket stacking shelves. At 15, Steve Rowe was a Saturday boy at M&S, |
| 1:01.8 | rising through the ranks to lead the company 30 years later. I'm Evan Davis, and welcome to the |
| 1:07.6 | decisions that made me, the podcast from the Team Behind the Bottom |
| 1:10.8 | Line program, in which we bring you interviews with top business figures about some of the |
| 1:16.1 | make-or-break moments in their careers. Now, in this episode, I'm talking to Joey Gonzalez. |
| 1:22.4 | Joey Gonzalez is executive chairman of Barry's. He was the chief executive. Barry's the US fitness studio chain, |
| 1:31.0 | formerly known as Barry's boot camp. It has many devoted customers and clients. Joey's first job |
| 1:37.8 | at the company was as an instructor, and he's been telling me, what is Barry's? |
| 1:43.8 | Barry's was the original boutique fitness concept, |
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