Scaling Passion Through Franchising: MaxStrength Fitness with Jeff Tomaszewski

Franchising is more than just expanding a business — it’s about scaling passion and impact. For Jeff Tomaszewski, founder of MaxStrength Fitness, franchising became the key to fulfilling his mission of helping people become the strongest versions of themselves. What started as a single studio in Cleveland, Ohio, has grown into a burgeoning franchise with multiple units, and Tomaszewski is just getting started.

“From the beginning, I had the end in mind,” Tomaszewski said, reflecting on the early days of MaxStrength Fitness. From the very beginning, he built his business with the intention to franchise, ensuring that systems and processes were scalable. This forward-thinking approach laid the foundation for what would eventually become a successful franchise model, with MaxStrength Fitness now boasting five franchise locations and 11 territories awarded.

MaxStrength Fitness is not your average gym. The brand focuses on delivering high-intensity strength training in just 20 minutes, twice a week. This efficient model is designed for clients who have built their wealth but neglected their health — a demographic Tomaszewski understands well. His personal story of overcoming tragedy, including the loss of his mother at a young age and his wife just three years ago, fuels his dedication to helping others improve their quality of life through fitness.

“It’s my life’s mission to help people become the strongest versions of themselves,” Tomaszewski said. “And I want franchisees who are just as passionate about that mission as I am.”

While the journey has been rewarding, it hasn’t been without challenges. Launching a franchise requires navigating the complexities of legal processes, selecting the right consultants and finding franchisees who align with the brand’s values. Tomaszewski emphasizes the importance of culture over quick growth, often turning away potential franchisees who don’t fit the MaxStrength ethos.

“We’ve said no to so many people already because this is a 10-year agreement,” he said. “I’ll be damned if I partner with somebody who I know is not going to be a good fit.”

Looking ahead, Tomaszewski has ambitious plans for MaxStrength Fitness. He aims to award 24 units in 2024 and eventually grow to 100 studios nationwide within five years. But no matter how large the brand becomes, Tomaszewski remains committed to maintaining the culture that makes MaxStrength unique.

“The goal is to grow slow but steady, at a pace that fits the culture of the business,” he said.

For Tomaszewski, the journey of franchising is not just about scaling a business — it’s about scaling his mission to transform lives, one studio at a time.

A transcript of Tomaszewski’s interview with Nick Powills, founder and publisher of 1851 Franchise, appears below. It has been edited for brevity, content and style.

Nick Powills: How did you fall into franchising?

Jeff Tomaszewski: The first business book I ever read when getting into business, which was about 20 years ago, was “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber. For those who haven’t read it, it’s about putting systems and processes in place in your business as if you were going to scale it to become a franchise. If you don’t have the systems and processes in place, you truly own a job instead of owning a business. From the beginning, I had the end in mind as if I wanted to franchise this business. For it to be scalable and in that position, we always had to think of the end in mind and put systems and processes in place. 

From the very beginning, we documented everything. I always knew that I wanted to help as many people become as strong as they can in every aspect of their lives. That’s what I truly believe I was put on this earth to do. But I’m only one guy, so in order for me to do that, I needed to have what we call “life transformers,” an army of life transformers, to build this. So, I always knew when I started my first studio that it would multiply into multiple corporate studios, but then franchising was the vehicle I wanted to choose moving forward to expand.

Powills: Did you only have one unit when you decided to franchise?

Tomaszewski: No, we actually had three — two going into three units. We opened up our first unit 17 years ago in 2004. We’ve been in business for quite a while, so it’s not like we’re new to business. We’ve been doing this for almost 20 years. I opened my first studio then, and in 2017, I opened my second studio. Just last year, we opened our third corporate studio, which was in the middle of launching our franchise. So, we have three corporate-owned studios in the Cleveland, Ohio, area.

Powills: How many franchises do you have now?

Tomaszewski: Currently, we have five. We just launched and opened our first one this past February in Niceville, Florida. So, we have five franchises with 11 territories awarded because most of our franchisees are multi-unit owners.

Powills: Did you work with a franchise consultant to help launch the franchise?

Tomaszewski: I’ve always tried to surround myself with people who have been there and done that where I want to go in the industry. I have a lot of mentors and coaches in the franchise space who really helped me expedite a lot of the pain, if you will, and get through the learning curve. When we first started launching our franchise, we used a lot of the portals to get leads, like Franchise Gator and some of the others, and they were horrific. They might have been good back in the day, but they were not anymore. So, I said, “There’s got to be a better way.” I didn’t know what I didn’t know at the time, but then we discovered the world of FSOs (Franchise Sales Organizations), and we partnered early on with Franchise FastLane. 

At the time, Franchise FastLane wouldn’t take us on as a brand because we were emerging, but they developed a new program called Carpool. The uniqueness of it was that they would take on an emerging brand from zero to 10 units and instill their whole discovery process. On the administrative backend, they would do territory checks and give us a tried-and-proven system for when someone raises their hand and expresses interest, all the way through what we call a confirmation day (or what people call Discovery Day) and then signing the franchise agreement. They also have great connections with all the franchise broker consultant networks, so they put us into a lot of those. That’s really what has been driving our franchise sales — developing relationships with consultants and brokers.

Powills: How do you reconcile the focus on business over culture in your franchise model, and do you think shifting towards emphasizing the human story behind your brand will help your organic growth?

Tomaszewski: We’ve been trying to do everything we can just to get our name out there. We started in the broker networks, but we’re putting a lot of effort into going into organic search and telling that story — getting out into the vast universe of people who want to leave corporate life and come into the fitness niche, telling our story, our culture and the passion behind it. That seed was planted when my mom died when I was five, and then fast forward, my wife passed away three years ago. She was my biggest cheerleader and wanted to see this be successful. All of those stories were told. That’s the first video we show when we have our confirmation day with our prospective franchisees. At the end of the day, this is a passion project for me, and it’s my life’s mission to help people become the strongest versions of themselves. I want other people who want to buy into that passion as well.

Powills: Okay, so you have five now that are in the works and are going to be multi-unit operators. Clearly, the broker community will sell multi-packs, and now it’s your job to make them successful on one and get them to two. How has early progress been going?

Tomaszewski: We have one open currently in Florida, and she’s off and running. We have two in development right now in Texas and Wisconsin, opening probably in late November. We’ve got all systems and processes in place. We just opened a third corporate studio, so we’ve been testing a lot of different marketing for that, and so far, it’s been fruitful — promising so far. We just need to prove it out and launch this out on franchise number one.

Powills: Has anything surprised you about their approach to opening, or have you learned anything new?

Tomaszewski: It’s always different because, in my corporate studio, I’m calling the shots and doing everything. Now you have a franchisee who you know has a tried-and-proven system, and if we just implement the system, it should work. But everybody’s different, right? Going into different markets is another unique opportunity. Coming from Ohio down into Florida is a slightly different demographic, but the same. So, really, our market-to-message with our marketing is the thing we’re refining and trying to make sure we attract the ideal prospect into those studios.

Powills: How are you supporting franchisees? What does the weekly support structure look like currently?

Tomaszewski: We have weekly calls. I have a director of onboarding. As an emerging brand, we’ve tried to be overstaffed with my team. I have a vice president of development, a director of training for our training protocol in the exercise protocol, and a director of onboarding. We also have some administrative support on the backend. We have weekly calls, monthly updates and we constantly communicate through a Slack channel. Our communication is always ongoing. We want to over-support as much as we can and provide as much support as possible along the way. As we grow our franchisees, we’ll grow the team along with it to keep over-delivering with that support level.

Powills: How fast do you want franchisees to grow?

Tomaszewski: We tell them within nine to 12 months to get established, get open and get going — especially if they’re not new to business. If they’ve been a business owner before and can borrow from some experience and acumen on the backend, we might be able to do it a little quicker. But we’re looking at a nine- to 12-month period of time from opening the first one to opening the second one. Then, when they open one, we can look at opening up three down the road. We could expedite that once they get more experience under their belt.

Powills: How long did it take you? How hard or how long did it take to figure out how to manage multiple locations?

Tomaszewski: I’ve always tried to run a self-managing company. I have a manager in place who runs the day-to-day. They do the majority of the training as well, and then they lead the team. I expect what I expect from a leadership perspective — drive the leadership, drive the marketing, drive the advertising. I have a monthly call with my managers and my executive team, and then a weekly call — a 20-minute huddle with my team. That’s what we do there. 

The reason it took me 17 years to open up throughout the process is that I have kids and I wanted to be a present dad. I didn’t want to be one of those dads who’s always off at the business and not able to stay home. I really slow-grew this on purpose. The fact is, I could have done it a lot quicker, but I take pride in being a present dad, being there with my family, traveling, doing the experiences and making sure I’m there when they wake up and when they go to bed. I sacrificed a lot of the growth in business for personal reasons. I know a lot of other people just grind and knock them out, but I think they sacrifice from the home perspective, and I would never sacrifice that. Once we decided it was time to franchise, it was all on board.

Powills: Where do you see this thing going, and what else do you want a candidate to know about the business?

Tomaszewski: We are truly about improving the quality of life of the clients we serve on a day-to-day basis because our clients have typically built their wealth but let their health suffer. That’s where we come in as the antidote — 20 minutes, twice a week. They don’t want to go to a traditional setting so that’s where they come to MaxStrength Fitness. 

Yes, I want to grow this, and like I said, I believe I was put on this earth by God to serve as many people as I can and help them become the strongest versions of themselves. Our goal is to award 24 units in 2024, and we’re almost halfway there. Next year, I’d like to award 40 to 50 for the next couple of years moving forward, and in five years, have up to around 100 studios nationwide.

We’ve said no to so many people already because this is a 10-year agreement. I’ll be damned if I partner with somebody who I know is not going to be a good fit. I’m not in this for the money or for a money grab to grow as quickly as we can. We will grow slow-but-steady, at a pace that fits the culture of the business and doesn’t sacrifice the culture moving forward.

Powills: Have you started thinking about other complementary widgets? You thought about franchising on day one — if you franchise your franchise model into another category that’s adjacent, has that been in the game plan at all?

Tomaszewski: It’s not, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be down the road. I need to prove this out first, so I’m just putting blinders on. I want to do one thing and I want to do it world-class, which is high-intensity strength training in 20 minutes, twice a week. Once we get to where we want to be and we’re at a sustainable model for growth, then I might turn my attention to an adjacent field — something similar but in the same path of helping people improve the quality of their lives through fitness and wellness.

Watch the full “Meet the Zor” podcast interview here.