Exploring Life & Business with Dan DeFigio of Basics and Beyond fitness & nutrition

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan DeFigio.

Hi Dan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started personal training as a solo provider in 1993. I was teaching martial arts at the time, so the expansion into teaching other kinds of exercise was natural. At the time, there were only a handful of personal trainers in Nashville, and we all knew each other and helped each other out.

Over the course of the next 5 years, my clientele expanded and so did my reputation. Soon there was more demand for my time than I had hours in the day, so I hired my first assistant. Basics and Beyond fitness & nutrition grew from there, adding talented trainers and new locations along the way.

When I first started coaching nutrition, I assumed that educating people on the right foods to eat would be the primary focus. Boy was I wrong! I soon realized that emotional eating and sugar addiction were huge problems for people. Everyone pretty much knows how they should be eating, but they’re not doing it. I started learning WHY we have such reactive eating urges and compulsions towards foods that we know are no good for us. I started developing ways to help people with sugar cravings and stress eating, and began writing about it in magazines and online in the early days of the internet.

One day out of the blue, the publishers of the Dummies books contacted me. The acquisition editor basically said “We love your stuff and we’d like you to write a book for us.” We batted around a few ideas, and Beating Sugar Addiction For Dummies – my most popular book – was born.

Since then I have delivered a lot of advice on podcasts and radio, doing my best to help people overcome stress eating and compulsive eating behaviors.

Since COVID I have been expanding this wellness work into putting a larger focus on people’s emotional and spiritual wellness. I have started leading retreats and doing corporate wellness work to help people foster deeper connections with their true selves and others, reconnect with nature, and explore their experience of spirit in whatever way resonates best with them.

As a company, we still offer top-notch personal training and nutrition coaching like we have for the last 30 years. My own private work with people has been encompassing more of the emotional and spiritual wellness aspects. It is very gratifying work, and I cannot put into words how fulfilling it is to see some of the transformations I have witnessed over the years!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Every business that has been around for more than 15 minutes will experience challenges. Since Basics and Beyond fitness & nutrition maintains such high standards for our coaches, finding new talent is always difficult. When you find a coach with the right knowledge, the right approach, the right communication and coaching techniques, and whose heart is in the right place, you have a real winner who can change lives forever. Finding coaches like that is like finding the proverbial needle-in-the-haystack, but it’s the reason we’ve been so successful over the last 30 years!

The pandemic was hard on everyone. We made it through COVID, thanks to government loans to keep my staff afloat and understanding landlords of our personal training facilities. Many people lost businesses, homes, and loved ones during the pandemic, so I am extremely grateful that we managed to pull through.

Another challenge has been the growth and metropolitanization of Nashville. As the “it” city, there is now a sub-par personal trainer on every street corner. Literally. Fortunately, our reputation and track record of success sets us apart from the average fitness trainer with a 6-pack and an Instagram account.

As you know, we’re big fans of Basics and Beyond fitness & nutrition. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Basics and Beyond fitness & nutrition has been Nashville’s flagship personal training service for over 30 years. Combining exercise, nutrition coaching, and physical therapy from one trusted provider gives our clients the ability to have most of their needs taken care of from people they already know and trust. Our tagline is “Why would you trust your body with anyone else?” and that question is still very valid!

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
While there’s nothing wrong with staying small and not wanting to step out of your safety box, risk is a part of growth. If you want to expand into bigger and better things, you’ll have to get out of your comfort zone. That goes for getting your body in shape AND getting your business in shape! There is no progress in the comfort zone.

I have taken risks with expanding into new facilities, and those have gone well and led to us being able to serve more clients over a wider area.

I bought a franchise gym as an adjunct business, and that was a financial disaster.

Some risks will pay off, others will cost you dearly. And some risks will lead somewhere you never saw coming!

The biggest risk was starting my own business. I come from a family of immigrants who are cultured to think of a job where you go work for the man, keep your nose down, life is hard, suck it up and provide for your family. The idea of not getting a regular paycheck was terrifying to them. No one in my family knew anything about business or had any money, so this was brand new territory for my family line. But I took the leap anyway. I did it. And I did it well. And I taught others to do the same. I can look back with no regrets.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://GettingFit.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/basicsandbeyondfitness
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/basicsandbeyond