How Top Coaches Build Profitable Gyms w/ Joe DeFranco and Chris Tutela
The Jay Ferruggia Show
Jay Ferruggia
4.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2026
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kill your vices, sculpt your physique, and become unstoppable with my FREE 6-Step Daily Domination Blueprint.
Today I'm joined by two of my good friends, Joe DeFranco and Chris Tutela.
Joe, founder/owner of the world-famous DeFranco's Gym, has transformed athletes for decades with his remarkable ability to improve strength, speed, power, mobility, agility and sport-specific endurance.
Chris, owner of Tutela Training Systems, has been a strength and conditioning specialist since 2006 and has had his work featured on EliteFTS.com and TrainHeroic.com.
These two know what it takes to build profitable gyms, and they're here today to share some lessons, skills, and strategies that will help you make more money, grow your business, and elevate your life...
- What separates a special gym from just another place to train? [5:11]
- Here's what they don't teach you in the books. [13:36]
- Some of the biggest mistakes holding gym owners back. [15:59]
- The key to making more while working less. [26:21]
- The evil word you need to master in order to succeed in business. [36:40]
- An easy way to maintain predictable and consistent cash flow. [44:50]
- What to avoid if you want your business to last. [53:01]
- The biggest factors in building a strong and impactful team. [1:01:30]
Sponsors
Marek Health: Take the path to better health, optimized performance, and increased longevity at marekhealth.com - code JAY at checkout for 10% off.
Want to work with me to transform your body and mind? Go here now.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You are listening to the J. Faruja show, the podcast that helps high achieving men get |
| 0:10.6 | lean and jacked, build an unbreakable mindset, and become the man you're meant to be. |
| 0:19.1 | What's up, guys? Welcome back to the show. I am joined today by my two good friends and brothers. Joe DeFranco and Chris Thutella. |
| 0:25.7 | And today we're going to talk about how to make more money in your gym. So let's start, Joe. You've been in the space a long time. |
| 0:34.4 | Let's start. Give a little background, a little intro, and you were doing it before there |
| 0:38.3 | was a playbook. Yeah, both of us, right? Yeah. There was no playbook back in back in the day. So my |
| 0:45.5 | blueprint isn't maybe what most would follow now, but there's still a lot that we could learn |
| 0:51.5 | from how we grew our gyms back in the day, which for me, I started, I worked for someone else, which I do think had a ton of value. |
| 0:59.9 | I worked at the Poresee Speed School for five years, had a great time there, learned a ton. |
| 1:06.2 | And then, you know, it was time to move on. |
| 1:09.1 | But at that point, I didn't really have much money of my own. |
| 1:13.4 | So the gym that I used to train at when I would come home on break when I was in college, because I didn't always love. |
| 1:21.4 | And any gym owner knows this. Sometimes it's good to get out of your gym or the gym you work at and train somewhere else. |
| 1:27.8 | So I had another gym that I would work out at sometimes, even when I was at preseason, when I was in college. |
| 1:34.4 | And I had gotten to know that owner. |
| 1:36.3 | And when I was looking for a spot, I couldn't afford my own spot. |
| 1:40.1 | But I remembered there was this storage closet in the basement of his gym that he just had old |
| 1:47.3 | broken equipment in and it was a literal storage closet. I asked him if I could rent that out |
| 1:52.5 | and run my own business out of there. He loved the idea because he was like that room has just |
| 1:57.5 | been sitting there. Like I'd love to make money off of you. If you're going to pay for the closet, like, I'm all for it. I'll renovate it for you. I'll paint it. I'll get all |
| 2:05.3 | that shit out of there. The room is yours. So I ordered three pieces of equipment with a credit |
| 2:11.7 | card that I had no money to my name, basically, because I was just making enough to pay my bills. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jay Ferruggia, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jay Ferruggia and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.