After a successful career in college athletics, Dave Thomas found himself at a crossroads. Unhappy in his sales job and feeling destined for more, he took a leap of faith and left his stable but unfulfilling position to enroll in an intensive 6-month fitness education course. This one decision catapulted him into the fitness industry, where he dedicated himself to becoming an exceptional instructor and eventually opened the popular Performance360 gym franchise. 

After he finished that first course, he immersed himself in additional coursework and quickly amassed more certifications, including Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), USA Weightlifting Coach, Kettlebell Specialist, Precision Nutrition Coach, and many more. What began as a solo mobile training operation that he ran out of his Nissan has become a thriving fitness empire with 17 locations open or in development. Thomas credits the growth of Performance360 to a relatable brand and a unique approach to health. 

In addition to building a gym franchise, he has received ten certifications, coached over 5,000 classes, written over 2,000 fitness blogs, developed brand coaching systems and the P360 Coach Academy, and designed the fitness program for Performance360. 

Coach360 spoke with Thomas about his philosophy on coaching education, how he connects and inspires his clients, and what he learned from building a gym from the ground up. Keep reading to hear his advice for new coaches and the two attributes he looks for in every hire.

Tell us your story in as little or as much detail as possible. Why did you become a coach? What do you consider your “superpower”?

My superpower as a Coach and now brand voice has always been “relatability.” I drink beer. I eat burritos. I don’t meal prep. And I have never pretended otherwise. Of course, I also emphasize a fit, healthy lifestyle with regular movement, a daily foundation of healthy eating, and aggressive training 3-4x per week, but it’s been my ability to blend the everyday normal indulgences as a fitness professional that has driven my success, and the brand’s. 

I first became a Coach in 2010 after deciding to leave my corporate job on a crazy whim that I could open a gym in San Diego. I have always been in good shape (thanks mostly to good genetics), I had a background in fitness after playing four years of Division I athletics, but I have never been an obvious “fitness guy” when you look at me. I’m not jacked. I have never been the strongest person in any room of fellow coaches. So I knew back then that my path to success was through being relatable and making that which is intimidating not so. The ability for someone to see how I lived and then believing that fitness could seamlessly fit into their life, as well. Without the plastic tubberware on the go, chicken and rice diets, and sipping aminos during a workout nonsense.  

I was, and am, just myself – and I think that authenticity has served me well in the manifestation of being relatable to my core customers. 

What was the turning point or motivation for you to become a certified coach? What then made you want to jump into entrepreneurship?

The turning point for me was sitting on the floor of my shower at 5am before going to my sales job (that I was horrible at), and realizing this was not what I was here to do. I have always been entrepreneurial and after that aha moment of depressing self pity, I went into work that day, gave my notice, and enrolled in a local fitness education program that was an intensive 6 month crash course of kinesiology and nutritional sciences. Cost me $6,000 that I did not have but to me, it was more about the signal of taking this seriously for myself than anything else. 

I just believed very, VERY strongly that the fitness landscape at the time was missing a brand that spoke to the everyday person trying to improve themselves. The person who did not want to live a boring, flavorless lifestyle just to get into shape. I believed there was a niche to be served by making complex fitness accessible, not intimidating, and so I dove headfirst into acquiring as much knowledge as I could to serve that goal. 

What were some of the personal challenges you faced during your professional journey? How were you able to address and overcome these challenges? Please share as much as you are comfortable as your journey can be someone else’s guide to transformation.

I think mine were pretty typical to everyone starting out. Finding clients and generating enough income to survive. Luckily, I started this journey with no real bills and no kids so it afforded me the runway to really develop my craft and not have the pressure of immediate success. Most people who follow Performance360 have no idea that it started out as me running it out of my Nissan for two years prior to the gym opening. I would hustle and do boot camps for my friends, drive an hour to train someone at their house, and essentially take clients as early as 4 am and as late as 10 pm. This gave me a crash course in how to talk to people and get through to many different types of clients. and was a critical foundation to the DNA of how we communicated at what would become Performance360. 

What kind of support and resources did you find most valuable during your journey to becoming a health, fitness, and/or wellness professional?

I started out before there were so many amazing resources like this one and back in the 2010s it was all about certifications. So I took as many of them as I possibly could. General personal training, nutrition, kettlebell, Olympic weightlifting, CrossFit, got my CSCS…if it was offered there is a strong chance I got the certification. I think to try and whittle that down into advice for up and coming coaches now it would be to expose yourself to as much education as possible. I think the advice of finding a niche is one that is terribly overdone. The old saying of “A jack of all trades is a master of none” is always misquoted, as the full quote of that is “A jack of all trades is a master of none…but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

So what I found to be most valuable for me was a wide range of skills and knowledge, it enabled me to apply little pieces of that to different clients rather than be pigeonholed and limited in my communication and coaching. 

Accumulate as much knowledge as you can, the chances of you being singularly successful in one niche is very slim and requires a ton of luck.  

Based on your experiences, what advice would you give to aspiring coaches who are aspiring to have a career in the health, fitness and wellness industry?

Here’s the truth no one else will tell you. If you want a career in fitness, you need to decide why you are interested in it. Is it for passion and lifestyle freedom? Or is it financial? If it is for passion and lifestyle freedom, there is no better route one can take in my honest opinion. The ability to work a flexible schedule that is often far less than the 40 hour office grind most have to endure, interact with great clients, the sense of achievement in helping someone, and being a positive role model in your community are all invaluable. 

However, there are not many paths that offer upward mobility financially in a way that scale your time to earn you more money. That’s just a fact. Many coaches often overstate their skill sets in other areas just because they were a successful coach. If you want to keep progressing in fitness, you need to learn business, management, and be ready to make yourself invaluable to your employers so that there is continued value in all that you offer beyond just the skills you have as a coach. 

That, or just open up a Performance360, of course 🙂

What qualities do you look for when recruiting and hiring coaches at Performance360?

There’s two that I look for. Buy in and coachability. I care very little about what you’ve achieved in your career prior to Performance360. It’s nice and the obvious reason we are interested in you, but I care about how much you buy into the culture we have here at Performance360. Because if I am not able to get you to buy in, then you won’t be in a position to let your unique skills and value shine. 

Beyond that, if you are not coachable then I know you have a ceiling that likely is not as high as you think it is, or want it to be. Team members who are bought in and coachable are the people that I have historically committed the majority of my mentorship and opportunity to. 

How do you feel Performance 360 uniquely differentiates itself as an employer?

We are one of the only concepts that offers you the ability to never have coached in your life and have that ultimately turn into being a gym owner. In fact, there are several in our culture now that I can show you as thriving. We offer real development for those who want it. It doesn’t happen overnight and requires willingness to commit and be patient, but so far, every coach who has wanted to open a Performance360 in our culture has, to date.

I believe very much that every coach should have an upward path if they show themselves as capable, consistent, and loyal. And I am very proud to say that has been the cornerstone of our brand growth. 

What advice would you offer a coach that is interested in a pathway to becoming a general manager or franchise owner?

What got you here is not necessarily going to get you there. Regularly ask your mentors or team managers how you can get better, and never stop doing this. It is absolutely incredible to me how few people do this because they think they are already an elite achiever. You will likely find that person is very interested in your success and seeing you thrive. We all have blindspots. Minimize yours as much as possible and you’ll succeed to a level far beyond those who refuse to address them.

Meg Lambrych, RN, NASM-CPT, PN-1
Meg Lambrych is a registered nurse, personal trainer, and nutritionist with 15 years of experience helping people reach their goals and expand their knowledge. She now works as a freelance health writer, partnering with innovative brands to educate and inspire readers in the digital publishing space.