May 8, 2017

Meet Beau Schulgen of CrossFit EaDo in East Downtown

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Beau Schulgen.

Beau, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I guess the best way to describe what CrossFit means to me is by telling you my story. I first heard about CrossFit in 2005 at Texas A&M University, from one of the original CrossFit OG’s, Matt Murski. He would hound me every time he saw me on campus, telling me repeatedly that I had to come try out this thing called CrossFit. Unfortunately for me, I did not heed his advice and continued my meathead phase of training well into 2008. Looking back, I wish I had listened to his advice, as I am confident I would have made it to the CrossFit Games at The Castro Ranch.

In 2009 I lived in Houston Texas and on one fateful day I walked out of my garage and heard some noise coming from my neighbor’s garage. I walk over and saw him and one of his buddy’s working out, I ask them what they were doing and the said, CrossFit. To which I reply, “Yeah I’ve heard of it”. They ask me if I would like to try it out, and an hour later, not much is remembered from that fateful WOD (workout of the day), but I do remember shaking like a leaf on a tree during ring dips, and I remember thinking the rower was the devil’s invention. After that day I was hooked! It got so bad that on days my neighbor worked late I would ring the doorbell and his wife would have to let me into the garage. After a few times I realized I had better find another place to do CrossFit before I wear out my welcome.

So I joined the brand new YMCA in downtown Houston, by this time I had convinced two of my co-workers at Merrill Lynch to come do it with me, Jimmy Diaz and Jeremy Torres. We definitely got strange looks and sadly the YMCA only had one pull up bar and it was stuck right between the cable crossover machine. We wasted many valuable seconds waiting for someone to get done with their triceps pull down set so we could knock out pull ups or toes to bar. After every WOD we would go upstairs to stretch and that is when I would tell the guys how I had scaled the original WOD that I had pulled off of CrossFit.com. We would laugh at how crazy in shape these people had to be to do the workout as prescribed. We were in awe of Lipson, Orlando, Everett, Clever, Thorisdottir, etc.

After a couple of times where the YMCA staff said we couldn’t throw the medicine ball in the air and that they frowned upon ‘intense circuits’, I realized I needed to do this on my own. I would sit at my desk scouring the CrossFit main site for advice and videos, I soaked up as much info as possible. I was also looking for warehouse space and pricing out equipment, I was doing all I could to try and open up my own box.

On another fateful day, December 12th 2011 I ran into a friend from college, Shahin Naghavi. As we were catching up I asked “what he was up to” which he replied “he was thinking about opening up a gym”. I asked him “what kind of gym” and he said “CrossFit”. The stories differ but I think I threw whatever I had in my hand and said ‘ME TOO”! He said his father owned a warehouse and if I wanted, we could partner up and open up a Box. I went by the space the very next day, walked into the 4000 sq. ft. building and said “Yes, this is perfect”. My co-workers and I started working out there with maybe two other people. The equipment was laughable, the funniest part was we had a metal bar hanging from the ceiling by two burlap straps. If you kipped too much it would start swinging like a trapeze…lol. In January 2012, my partner and I went to our Level 1 Seminar in Dallas Texas at CrossFit Strong. To say it was an eye opening experience would not do it justice. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The Fran WOD (45 Thrusters & 45 Pull Ups) portion of the seminar absolutely destroyed us! As we were lying on the floor, we were shocked at how many people were able to function after that soul crushing workout, and even more shocked at how many people wanted to stay and work on skills. As we crawled out the door to leave I remember being so inspired by what I saw, and so motivated by the seminar staff.

My partner went through the affiliation process and on March 15th 2012 CrossFit EaDo was born. Due to my degree in Exercise Science, my experience as a personal trainer for 4 years and my passion for CrossFit, I was the Head coach, head programmer, head floor moper and toilet cleaner. We slowly grew from 5 to 30 to 60 to that amazing 100 member mark. I remember calling my older brother and proudly telling him we hit the 100 mark. Having his approval and support meant and still means a lot to me.

At the time I was still trying to work at Merrill Lynch and coach at CrossFit EaDo, and I was running out of steam. So on the 3rd most fateful day of my life, in Feb 2012, I walked into my boss’s office and told her I was quitting to pursue my dream of opening up a CrossFit box. She understandably try to dissuade me, but at the end offered her 100% support. I told myself 6 months, I had 6 months to make this business profitable and turn it into a career, or I would go back into banking. That was 5 years ago, and I have been blessed every day since. I have turned changing people’s lives through CrossFit into a career. By the end of 2012 we were at a tipping point, either we knock down a wall to expand or take a huge gamble and move into a 25,000 sq. ft. warehouse owned by his father. You know what they say “everything is bigger in Texas” so we went big and spent all the money we had saved on building out the new space. We moved into the new building in February 2013, it was so beautiful, more space than we knew what to do with.

I tell everyone it was our Field of Dreams moment, if we build it they will come. Thankfully they came, we quickly exceeded the 200 member mark, then 300 member mark. Fate was shining on us in another way as well. A month prior to us moving into the larger space we had a drop-in come check us out, unbeknownst to me it was CrossFit Games athlete Jenn Jones She decided to call CrossFit EaDo her home from then on. Because of her I was blessed to attend the CrossFit Games in 2013, 14, & 15 to watch her compete and represent our box. She is a fantastic athlete and friend. We continued to grow our community by offering different options via Boot Camp, Weightlifting, Competition class and CrossFit.

I will be the first to say I did not get where I am today on my own. I owe it all to our Coaches, our Members and our Community. CrossFit has blessed my life, changed my life, given me friends I will cherish forever. My goal every day is to create an environment where my employees and athletes have the ability to succeed, to grow, and to find and build a community they can call their own, a community they love.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I tell people all the time that we are not in the fitness business, we are in the people business. Managing people by far has been the biggest obstacle, whether that’s your employees or customers or both. I’m referring to communication, shared vision, vales, culture and leadership. These things must be consistent and they must be genuine. Most businesses do a couple but great businesses does them all. The first step is to find out your “Why”. Why are you in business, why do people trust you, why do people buy your product or service, etc. Once you answer those questions you will know what you value, which builds your culture and that culture will communicate your shared vision. To find out more on the topic of “Why” watch some of Simon Sinek videos on you Tube, you will thank me later.

If you are an entrepreneur or a business owner then you to are in the people business. If you can’t manage people then you can’t manage a business. A must read book that will help you on this topic is “How To Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. It’s an old book but it is still as relevant and as valuable as the day it was written.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the CrossFit EaDo story. Tell us more about the business.
CrossFit EaDo is a community of people empowering others to experience a life transformation through fitness. EaDo offers many programs that caters to any person, regardless of age or fitness level. We have CrossFit, Boot Camp, Weightlifting and Competition classes. The thing I am most proud of is our diversity, we are a community of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I have always been an optimistic person. Belief in one’s self is more powerful than luck. I never knew what to call this belief until I read an amazing book titled “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. In the book he talks about The Stockdale Paradox. It is named after admiral Jim Stockdale, who was a United States military officer held captive for eight years during the Vietnam War. The Stockdale Paradox is the ability for a person to retain faith that they will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, but at the same time they must confront the most brutal facts of their current reality, whatever they might be. You can’t have one without the other, hence the Paradox. Every business owner should read this book.

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