We can’t believe we’re already celebrating our first year owning Alpha Omega Performance in Downtown Pensacola. 🎉If you’re new around here, we’re Alyssa and Dave Brandeberry, and this past year has been one of the most rewarding (and challenging!) adventures of our lives. We’re so thankful for our amazing members, our supportive community, and every single person who has cheered us on along the way.
Over the last 12 months, we’ve been able to:
- Add a full nutrition shop (with an InBody Scanner so you can actually SEE and TRACK your results!)
- Upgrade equipment to keep training fun and effective
- Rebrand our website and refresh the look of Alpha Omega Performance (complete with an awesome new mural!)
- Start new traditions with our AOP family that we can’t wait to grow year after year
It’s been a whirlwind of learning, growing, and building something bigger than just a gym. Alpha Omega Performance is becoming a true health home here in Downtown Pensacola, and it’s all because of this community.
Here’s to year two — stronger, healthier, and even better together. 💪
We can’t wait to show you what we have in store for the next year. But, in the meantime we wanted to dive into the past. We sat down and talked about our vision and looked back on the last year.
How did we decide on buying Alpha Omega Performance?
A: We found out the gym was for sale through the old owner, Joe. I had been coaching here for almost a year and he had reached out to the coaches first just to see if anybody would be interested. At first, I was like “No. No way.” And, I told David and David is Mr. Optimist. So, he was like “Well, maybe..” and then in March, we had spoken with Joe about maybe doing it.
But, we both have (Well, David still has) a full blown career. And, I was working as a legal nurse consultant and was working great hours from home. Joe had a lot of responsibility and I was not sure if that was going to be for me.
D: Well, I liked the idea of having a local business. I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. My grandpa owned a local car dealership, my Dad owned a small business as well. It’s kind of in my blood. So, I’ve always wanted to have something where we could pour into a local community. And, we love this place. It was two-fold. One, we couldn’t see this gym go away. But two, I saw this as an opportunity even if it wasn’t going to be something that made our life or made us the richest people in the world. It gave us a real opportunity to have a better connection with Pensacola.
A: I think a lot of that too is we were both working remotely for companies- not in Pensacola. And, for both of us it made us feel like we were giving back to the community in some way. It’s a good feeling.
What do you love most about owning a gym so far?
D: I think so far, it’s the relationships with people that we’ve gotten to meet. I didn’t realize it was going to be so hard to say good-bye to people. Whether they’re military, or otherwise that you knew ahead of time were only going to be here for a short stint of time. And after they’re here for maybe 6 months or more, it’s time for the to leave and honestly- it caught me really off guard, how hard that was going to hit.
We’re one year in. It’s been a hard year to say the least.
A: I think too, we really are helping people change their lives. Just seeing everybody get their PR’s or do Double-Unders for the first time or seeing somebody finally hit their weight goal. It’s just, there’s nothing that beats that feeling of “All right, I didn’t do this, you did the work. But, you did it here and you had a community supporting you the whole way through.”
What were some of the unexpected challenges you faced in year one?
D: The ridiculous amount of snow that we got over the winter that caused a pipe to burst? And we had no idea where the water main was? It took us awhile to find it. Yeah that was fun and unexpected. I think we knew what we were getting into and we’ve experienced all of it. The good, bad and the ugly.
A: I think for me, what was unexpected was really how it consumes your every single day. I love it, don’t get me wrong. But, it’s not an 8-5 it’s every single day. When we’re not here we’re thinking about here. We want to make sure everything is going well. We want to make sure everything is taken care of. Reminding ourselves to hit the off button sometimes has been probably the most unexpected challenge.
What do you want to see happen with the gym in the long term and short term?
D: Long term goals for what we want to see happen for this gym, is for it to turn into a health community. We want to do more than just be a gym, we want this to be a place for people to come and find community and find that in-person connection with others in a world where we are forced to be more isolated and digital. We want people to find ways to come together. That’s where the nutrition shop comes to play and adding that on is another reason we can get people from the local area to come visit and be here in person. But then, continue to find other opportunities to keep expanding and really make our community as healthy as can be. I think that’s our ultimate vision. That’s going to take way more than a year to accomplish. It’s going to take a lifetime to eventually get to where we want to be.
A: I would agree. I was a nurse prior to being a gym owner. So for me, I look at my athletes like I look at my patients. I see the whole person. And, we try to take that into consideration when it comes to training. It’s not just about training, it’s about how are you sleeping? What are you dealing with at home? How’s your nutrition? Are we being taken care of mentally? Our core values are strong mind, strong body, strong community. As long as we’re hitting those three things, everybody will be set up for success.
We’ve had a blast in our first year. If you’re looking to be a part of a fitness community and haven’t found your home, we’d love for you to try us out. Click here to sign up for your free consultation.
