Ep. 20 - What Makes a Great Fitness Coach with Ryan Thomson
Up and Adam with Adam Von Rothfelder
Release Date: 05/18/2022
Up and Adam with Adam Von Rothfelder
Save 15% on Strong Coffee Company with checkout code UPANDADAM at Up and Adam is an production. For your podcast needs email us at This show is filmed at studios in Austin, TX. John Romaniello is a NYT best-selling author, writing mentor and business coach that helps entrepreneurs build and scale businesses through writing and branding. His partner, Amanda Bucci, is an online business and conscious leadership coach that helps entrepreneurs start, grow and scale their business rooted in alignment and authenticity. Follow John Follow Amanda
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Save 15% on Strong Coffee Company with checkout code UPANDADAM at Up and Adam is an production. For your podcast needs email us at This show is filmed at studios in Austin, TX. “It’s hard to be depressed or be sad or be worried about shit when I’m helping someone change their life.” ~Ryan Thomson Ryan Thomson is a Milwaukee-based fitness coach who specializes in boxing, strength, bodybuilding, fat loss, endurance, and HIIT training. He is the owner of multiple 9Round franchises and the General Manager at social performance club KOLLECTIVE. A college dropout, Ryan...
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Save 15% on Strong Coffee Company with checkout code UPANDADAM at Up and Adam is an production. For your podcast needs email us at This show is filmed at studios in Austin, TX. Being an entrepreneur can be challenging, moreso if you’re a family man. Nicholas Noel just so happens to be both. He is the CEO of Meal Proz, a healthy meal prep service with three retail locations around Austin that offers low sodium, no added fat or sugar, prepackaged meals. Adam speaks with Nicholas on the ins-and-outs of running a meal prep business and how the company has evolved since its...
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Save 15% on Strong Coffee Company with checkout code UPANDADAM at Up and Adam is an production. For your podcast needs email us at This show is filmed at studios in Austin, TX. “In some way, even if our circle or our audience or our whatever is being reduced, it’s possible that our impact is actually becoming greater. [...] Starting anew, right now, is the best thing we can do.” ~Joe DiStefano Joe DiStefano is a coach, educator, the Founder of RUNGA, and host of the STACKED podcast. Joe joins Adam once again on this episode of Up and Adam to look back on the past 19...
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Save 15% on Strong Coffee Company with checkout code UPANDADAM at Up and Adam is an production. For your podcast needs email us at This show is filmed at studios in Austin, TX. Joe DiStefano is a coach, educator, the Founder of RUNGA, and host of the STACKED podcast. Joe joins Adam on this episode of Up and Adam to do a deep dive into the science of stress, how the modern world has cornered us into a neverending state of survival mode, and how to break out of that vicious cycle. Joe kicks things off talking about his transition out of the corporate side of the wellness...
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Save 15% on Strong Coffee Company with checkout code UPANDADAM at Up and Adam is an production. For your podcast needs email us at This show is filmed at studios in Austin, TX. “How do you get into that ‘state of flow’ within your business? It’s all about finding that intersection between what challenges you and what you can truly be the best at.” ~Geno Mattioda Geno Mattioda is the founder of the Austin-based wellness hub known as theDEN. Geno joins Adam on this episode of Up and Adam to discuss his long and turbulent journey leading up to theDEN’s founding....
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Save 15% on Strong Coffee Company with checkout code UPANDADAM at Up and Adam is an production. For your podcast needs email us at This show is filmed at studios in Austin, TX. Do you devour life? This week’s guests certainly do… Chancellor Aven is an entrepreneur and creative. Kristin is a model, entrepreneur, and pleasure coach. Together, they create content on OnlyFans. Listen in as Chance and Christina join Adam on this episode of Up and Adam to talk about overcoming chronic illnesses while pursuing entrepreneurship. After a business partnership blew up, causing...
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Save 15% on Strong Coffee Company with checkout code UPANDADAM at Up and Adam is an production. For your podcast needs email us at This show is filmed at studios in Austin, TX. “That’s what I’m trying to do with Sacred Hunting: Get people into a place where they can feel things that they’ve never felt before, that they may already know intellectually. You know that animals have to die for food to get to your plate. You don’t know in your body what it feels like to look that animal in the eye and put a knife in its heart and realize, with its eyes looking back at...
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Save 15% on Strong Coffee Company with checkout code UPANDADAM at Up and Adam is an production. For your podcast needs email us at This show is filmed at studios in Austin, TX. “The only thing that I can do is live authentically if I actually care about serving other people, because the words that I’m saying are irrelevant.” ~Jesse Elder Jesse is a speaker, mentor, entrepreneur, podcaster, action philosopher, and all-around lover of life. He’s devoted his life to sharing his principles of self-mastery with people all around the world. Through his popular Mind Vitamin...
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"My mission is to close that gap between healthcare and fitness and raise the level of both." – David Skolnik David Skolnik is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, entrepreneur, and strength and conditioning coach. He is the founder and owner of Stronger in Motion, which offers personalized training and nutrition programs as well as one-on-one coaching with David and his team. David is also the Co-Host of The Essential Strength Podcast. In this episode, Adam speaks with David Skolnik on his unique purpose in the health and fitness world. He also gives his take on why many in the PT field tend to...
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Up and Adam is an Operation Podcast production. For your podcast needs email us at [email protected]. This show is filmed at IBBLE studios in Austin, TX.
“It’s hard to be depressed or be sad or be worried about shit when I’m helping someone change their life.” ~Ryan Thomson
Ryan Thomson is a Milwaukee-based fitness coach who specializes in boxing, strength, bodybuilding, fat loss, endurance, and HIIT training. He is the owner of multiple 9Round franchises and the General Manager at social performance club KOLLECTIVE.
A college dropout, Ryan suffered a career ending injury playing football during his freshman year, causing him to fall into a deep depression for a couple of years. The thing that eventually turned his life around? Fitness. It was his original passion and continued to be that driving force behind his success in life and in business. Fitness truly did save Ryan’s life.
Ryan opened his first gym in 2013, and his second in 2014. He loved the process of putting together these “communities” of people who were united in their quest for continuous growth in both their physical and mental wellbeing.
Things weren’t always smooth sailing for Ryan. He went through a rough divorce five years later, which led him to sell his two gyms and recalibrate his direction. In April 2019, he ended up in Austin where he and partner Otto Ohlsson launched SWAY Boxing Studio.
Follow Ryan @ryan_thomson44
Follow Adam @vonrothfelder
Key Highlights
- Ryan shares how he was able to run an extremely profitable gym franchise in Milwaukee.
- Ryan’s divorce flipped his world upside down. He talks about the lessons he learned from that experience and how he is coping today.
- Adam and Ryan discuss the art of pricing and programming for gym clients.
- The path towards success and significance is paved with risk—and with risk come failures, distractions, and setbacks. Ryan encourages listeners to persevere in the face of hardship, because on the other side of the obstacle is the reward.
Powerful Quotes by Ryan
- Most coaches or trainers struggle to make money, and it’s either because the gym is taking everything or they’re just not charging enough.
- Everybody has their shit. The million dollar question is: How do you operate with your shit?
- If you’re still here, you’re not done yet.