The Magic City Business podcast is dedicated to celebrating the owners and innovators behind the best businesses in Birmingham, Alabama. In this episode, host Jason Will interviews Courtney Rogers of F45 Training Vestavia at Liberty Park. They discuss Courtney’s venture into the fitness industry, how she came to be a F45 franchise owner, and how she has learned to navigate COVID.
Jason opens the conversation by asking Courtney about her journey into fitness. Courtney reveals she was first introduced to exercise science and nutrition playing volleyball growing up. When she reached college, she doubled down on her love for health science, becoming a personal trainer in her free time and studying abroad in Australia twice to learn more about a career in the industry.
When Jason asks how Courtney came to be the owner of F45 Vestavia at Liberty Park, she tells while in Australia she saw how inviting and effective the F45 franchises were. When she came back to the states, she saw a need for Birmingham to have its own functional high intensity interval training.Courtney elaborates further on why F45 is the right gym to have in Birmingham by drawing from experiences as a personal trainer. She knew many people shied away from personal training because of how expensive it can be—as well as how some can feel intimidated in doing 1-on-1 sessions.
F45 provides team training with a community connection. Courtney tells Jason she has seen much greater growth in individuals than in personal training because everyone learns to hold each other accountable inside and outside the gym.The idea of accountability is what keeps people coming back. All of the members at F45 are on a fitness journey together, and Courtney tells Jason that she is simply there to guide them. From exciting classes to personalized goal setting and nutrition planning, Courtney’s business goes beyond the point of trying to be profitable—she’s aligned her work with her passion to change lives.