Joey Gonzalez, 45, made what would turn out a pivotal career decision at the age of 26, when he attended his first Barry's Bootcamp exercise class. Little did he know that a single workout would ignite a passion within him and set him on a path to leadership.
"Aside from my acting career, I was a real estate salesperson, massage therapist, waiter. I mean, I probably had like five or six different careers within a short amount of time," Gonzalez says. "But I knew what it was like to absolutely love what I did, and for work not to feel like work. And I was not going to stop until I found that again."
"I showed up [to my first class one] Saturday morning and the 10:00 was packed," Gonzalez says. "But I had the best experience ever. My walls came down within the first five minutes, everybody was friendly. The clients were just surrounded by like-minded people."Shortly after, Gonzalez started taking classes twice a day before embarking on a new chapter of his career.
"I really sacrificed everything. And there was a world where if it didn't work, I would be homeless on the street with no money and probably not engaged any longer. It could have gotten very bad," he says.Over the years, Gonzalez worked hard to move up the ranks, from instructor, manager, and director of operations, to COO and now CEO.
"I made sure I hired the right people for each role, bringing all functions in house so we could begin to scale the business without jeopardizing the brand or experience," he says. "We invested in a digital infrastructure, developed studio optimization best practices, and strategically began to open more Barry's studios across the country and world."