Julie Johnston of Camp Rhino created the first bootcamp in Vegas (maybe the world!), had a Ninja Warrior course before anyone else, and now combines OCR, CrossFit and her giant bootcamp under two enormous roofs in the desert.
Just listening to Julie on this episode will make you smile. It's a great kickstart to your week--and the way she kickstarts all of her bootcamps--a two-hour lesson called "The Happiness Workshop"--will kick your BRAIN into high gear! It's a perfect interview for a Monday!
We'll talk about how Julie grew her businesses to where it is today through some ingenious techniques, crazy risk and massive personality.
Julie comes from a long line of business owners. Seeing the stress that so many of her relatives went through to own their own business motivated Julie to steer clear of ever owning her own business. It wasn’t until she was in college that her entrepreneurial spirit took root and she soon abandoned her initial impression of what it was to be an entrepreneur. After much stress in her first entrepreneurial adventure, Julie began gaining a lot of weight and she knew something had to change to get her health in order. Julie decided it would be best to join a boot camp class and within a few weeks she was teaching her own class.
It wasn’t long before July wanted to start her own boot camp even though her friends and family thought she was crazy. For the first year, it was not very successful. Julie was determined to succeed however and she not only lost the weight that she needed to lose but she was slowly gaining clients for her new business. It was at this time that Julie came up with an ingenious idea to generate some buzz around her new business when she challenged two news stations to battle it out in a boot camp competition. This gained her the publicity she needed to really push her business to a new level.
One of Julie’s keys to success is her supportive family surrounding her business. Julie’s brothers have been trainers at her gym since the beginning and have gone along with all of her crazy obstacle course ideas. In addition to CrossFit, Camp Rhino offers some outrageous obstacle courses. Julie even built an obstacle course out in the desert at one point in time. Family is extremely important to Julie and she will always make time for them no matter what.
Being a successful gym owner can take a large investment of time. Despite this, Julie makes time every day to train and stay in shape. She has learned that no one likes a fat gym owner and the fear of gaining weight like she once did keeps her motivated to set the pace and lead by example in her gym.
Another important component of Julie’s gym is running something she calls, The Happiness Workshop. Julie takes creating a positive and happy environment very seriously. This allows Camp Rhino to be a positive place without whining, excuses, and complaining. Loving others and being the best version of yourself is what it is all about and what Camp Rhino is all about.