Meet Michael Anderson | Gym Owner Compound Athletics

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michael Anderson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
That would have to be my “why”. Your “why” is so very important to your success because if you know why you are doing something and you fully believe in it, then people believe in you. My why has always been to empower others through fitness. I believe that everyone should find freedom through movement. That shows in my coaching and all of our coaching at Compound Athletics. We genuinely want to show people how to physically push their bodies while at the same time coaching proper movement mechanics. Being able to move your body properly is the best way to take care of your body. Our members know that we care about them and they know our why and that has been very important in our success

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Compound Athletics has been a gym I’ve been waiting to open for over 10 years. I was always so close to opening a gym throughout that time, but the universe had other plans and I had more to learn first.

What sets apart Compound Athletics from other gyms is our approach to health & fitness and also our definition of health & fitness and what that covers. I think as the world continues to progress we are seeing that being healthy and being fit is much more than just a physical attribute we associate to it. For us it encompasses not only physically being fit, but emotionally and mentally. We try to educate our members on how to be emotionally well and also are huge advocates of mental health. Our content that we produce, whether it be in our weekly newsletter or via social media, is not just showing you how to do workouts, but we write blogs on a range of health topics and try to post on social media about the emotional and mental side of health to try to help destigmatize it. We try to provide resources for mental health such as therapist and counselors we trust and work with, mental health journals, and a healthy community. By healthy community I mean having a community that is diverse, accepting, and non-judgmental.

I would have to say that I am most proud of the community we have built here. Having an inclusive gym that welcomes everyone with open arms no matter what type of physical shape you are in, your race, where you are from, your sex or sexual orientation and all the rest of it has always been priority. I would argue that we have THE BEST community in all of DFW. We like to tell people that all you have to do is try one class with us and you’ll be convinced too.

The thing that I am most excited about is continuing this journey. We are not even finished with our first year in business yet and I feel like we have made some incredible strides. One of the biggest things I am proud of is the launch of our online program. It has been something we have been working on tirelessly to get right and can’t wait to put it out there for the world to have. It will bring world class programming and coaching at an affordable price for everyone right to your home.

How I got to where I am today business-wise was no easy feat and to be honest I was pretty ready to give it up. I’ve always had the dream of opening my own gym and have come close many times over the years, but it always fell short. Opening Compound Athletics seemed as though finally all the pieces came together at the right time and the universe was like “you’re ready”. That being said it has not been some smooth ride that I naively thought it would be. There were a lot of things I did not know about being a small business owner that I quickly had to learn. I did a lot of reading, read a ton of blogs, and also sought out help. I met with a former CFO who showed me the ins and outs of the financial side of business and hired a business coach to help stay on course and guide me through this process. Hiring a business coach was probably the most important thing I did to help myself, would highly recommend if you can.

There are a couple of lessons that I’ve learned so far that I think are very important. I talked about the first one earlier and the most important one, that is knowing your “why”.

The second one is consistency. This one to me is overlooked, but every single successful person will tell you how important being consistent is. No matter what your business is, doing the things you need to be doing consistently is the key to success. I found for me this one was very hard and something my coach and I work on on a daily basis. I want perfection and things done exactly the way I plan them, but that’s not how this game works. Setting up your game plan and executing it every single day no matter what, is what leads to the success of a business. Consistency builds habits and those habits, good ones of course, build success. Your good habits as a business owner will take your further then the people who have all the resources and no good habits.

This actually leads me into my third lesson which is don’t sweat the results, sweat the process. I’m not saying results are are not important, but instead I’m saying that if you have built out a game plan, you consistently work towards executing that game plan every single day which in turns builds great habits, then you have done everything you could and the results you want will follow. There will be some slight adjustments you have to make along the way, but if you are constantly worried about the results it will drain you and you will never be satisfied. Focus on the process, trust the process, and work the process every single day.

What I want the world to know about Compound Athletics is that it is a reflection of me. It is my beliefs, it is about bringing my culture and representation of my culture into this space, into this city. It is about representing for all avenues of health & fitness and giving everyone a space to be themselves while also providing a space for everyone to find themselves. Compound Athletics is an inclusive community of athletes looking to empower themselves through health & fitness.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If visiting Fort Worth I would definitely recommend BBQ of course. Some of my favorites are Brix and Dayne’s. For a more formal restaurant I love Hatsuyuki Handroll Bar (I know sushi in Texas? Trust me), for the best street tacos Guapo Tacos is amazing, and for Tex Mex Esparanza’s, their margaritas are amazing. Definitely would hit up the good coffee spots like Black Coffee, Roots, and Trinity Coffee. Great bars to go to would be Dryce Hotel bar, Blackland Distillery tasting room, and a favorite local spot Mad Hatter.

As far as things to do I love going down to the Trinity River and walking along there, especially toward Clearfork where you can go get some food and drinks. South Main and Magnolia are good for having a chill day of shopping and food and drinks. Making it out to Texas Live to watch the football games is fun. And of course making it out to the lake is always a great day.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
One of my biggest supporters, if not the biggest supporter, would have to be my girlfriend Taylor. She has encouraged me through this whole process and was actually the one responsible for telling me to take the leap into opening the gym. This whole process of opening and running a small business has not been the easiest thing to do and came with a lot more stress and difficulty than anticipated which puts a lot of strain on a relationship. She has been in my corner though and helped guide me through the difficult times and the times I doubted if opening a gym was something I should have done. Definitely could have not done this without her.

Website: www.CompoundAthletics.fit

Instagram: instagram.com/compound_athletics

Facebook: Facebook.com/compoundathletics

Yelp: Compound Athletics

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLc5asruU8axL1GyI9ePnIg