3 Phases of Leadership with Andrew Simpson
Okay. Here's where I'd like to start if it's possible. If we were to look at, when you started PFP to where we're at now and we were to kind of, divide up your leadership growth journey into chapters or stages, what would those chapters or stages be? How would you think about those?
Andrew Simpson:Stage one would be when I thought I ran good meetings and then five years later found out how terrible they were. But those team members stayed with us, so it was okay. No, man. I mean, stage one, was zero zero intentionality in terms of what I thought the business would become. I just had blind ambition and just stepped out in faith.
Andrew Simpson:So that that first stage was just it was just, like, one step in front of the other, zero strategy, zero planning.
Alex Judd:Was would it be just be like hustle? Is hustle the right word? Or
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. It didn't feel like that, though.
Alex Judd:Okay.
Andrew Simpson:Hustle now feels not so good. Mhmm. But I think back then, it was just, yeah, it was just fun, and it was just do the next right thing. So but, yeah, hustle isn't a bad way to describe that. And that was probably from 2014 to 2016, I would describe that phase, and then we expanded our business from there.
Andrew Simpson:But that's phase one for sure.
Alex Judd:If you think about kind of the subsequent phases, let's give people, like, a road map walking us up to now 2026.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. So 2014, we started. 2016, we expanded for the first time, and that's when I realized, okay. There's more to this business than just fun every day and do whatever we want. Mhmm.
Andrew Simpson:2016 to 2039 really was the period where we started to see things grow at a more rapid rate, hired on more people. And then in 2020, that's when over COVID, is when we tripled the size of our business, our brick and mortar training, fitness facility. And at that point, it was still, manageable, I guess, I would say. And then in 2020 is when God gave us the vision to have multiple locations, which then that changed the game, right, going from one that I could oversee everything to scaling to multiple locations, which then required more systems and processes. So that's 2020 was the start of a a very different chapter, would say.
Andrew Simpson:It's when we introduced EOS. And, yeah, that changed a lot for our business.
Alex Judd:Mhmm. Yep. And then do you think, like, that scale process of, so if we were to say, like, hustle, 14 to 16, growth, 16 to 19, scale is 2020, does that lead us up to where the PFP business is today, 2026?
Andrew Simpson:I would say, yeah. Okay.
Alex Judd:Awesome. I'm so fascinated in particular by, like, where you're at today from a leadership perspective because I've I've actually known you I guess I haven't known you since 2014. You and I probably met around 2016. Right? 2016, 2017.
Alex Judd:Yep. I feel like I've known multiple Andrews during that time, and your values and and, personality haven't changed all that much. Your leadership style has changed a lot. You've known multiple Alex's in that time as well. Sure.
Alex Judd:But I think what I'm so fascinated by is the type of leader that you are now, and you and I just spent some time together the past couple hours together, and the journey of how you've gotten there, and that's what I'd love for us to dive into. So so let's just start with that hustle stage. What were your leadership strengths in that stage that laid the foundation for what PFP later would become, and what were your weaknesses at that stage?
Andrew Simpson:I would say in that stage, my character strengths were probably my leadership strengths. Right? Like, I was considerate of people. I cared about people. The team members that we had on board, I wanted to make sure that they were well taken care of, that they were recognized, that they were, they felt special.
Andrew Simpson:I think that it was the people side of leading the team that I did well with. The weaknesses were definitely having uncomfortable conversations, clarity, communication, anything that required structure really or organization. Entrepreneurial right. Those those those were my strengths. Getting the business going, coming up with new ideas, getting the team excited about them, definitely strengths.
Andrew Simpson:And then anything that an entrepreneur is typically not good at are things that I was not good at.
Alex Judd:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're pretty archetypal in that way. It's pretty remarkable. Yeah.
Alex Judd:When you look back to, like, that two year period, what's the greatest value that you now you're like, man, I'm so glad I went through that two year period because it changes the way I lead now.
Andrew Simpson:Mhmm. Honestly, it was the first time I wouldn't even consider myself, like, throughout high school playing sports and whatnot. Like, I don't even think that I was a a leader then. Like, I never wanted the responsibility of leading people. So just from 2014 to 2016, just the very nature of hiring on five to seven people and having to lead and manage them, like, was the biggest growth that I had ever gone through up to that point in my life as far as people are concerned.
Andrew Simpson:Mhmm. I didn't know how I I thought that having sisters growing up, I knew how to deal with women, but nope. Not until I not until I employed them where I was, wow. This is different. This is different.
Alex Judd:If you think back to that stage, how do you think God was forming you during that time of of your life and leadership?
Andrew Simpson:2014 to 2016, I became so obsessed with excellence and what we were doing from a customer service and delivery standpoint. It had to be the way that I thought it had to be. Twenty fourteen to 2016, I think he was really preparing me to then slowly release control over time because of how hyper focused I was on control in those first couple years, I would say.
Alex Judd:You almost had a environment where you actually were exerting a lot of control, and you're saying, like, he was preparing you to almost be broken of that. Is that what you're saying?
Andrew Simpson:I would say, yeah. Because while none of our team members, I I don't think, felt, like I was too much with this. I would have described and I had one team member that actually did describe this, that there was subtle manipulation in my leadership style where and I think what he was really alluding to when he shared this with me was it was the excessive pre framing. It was the, using a little bit too much psychology for what I would have said were the right reasons, but not in a way that the leaders that I would most look up to or admire would ever use it. So I was 24 to 26 years older.
Andrew Simpson:We're talking we're talking about that time frame right now. And so, yeah, that was probably what he was trying to break in me during those years is or prepare me to be broken in that way.
Alex Judd:How do you think about your ambition during that stage?
Andrew Simpson:I I wouldn't say it was massive ambition. It was more and I never had, like, fear necessarily that we weren't gonna be able to, like, pay the bills or anything like that. But from an ambition standpoint, 2014 to 2016, I didn't have any ambitions of having four locations or 20 locations or now our vision is even bigger than that. But I was never, thinking to myself, I wanna have a $10,000,000 business or a $100,000,000 business. It was just like, this is fun, and we're making a really big impact in people's lives, and I wanna make sure we do this well.
Andrew Simpson:And we wanna I wanna do this right no matter what that, you know, costs. So
Alex Judd:If we had interacted with you at that stage, would we have described you as confident?
Andrew Simpson:In some ways, yes. Confident, confident about what we were doing and and the service we were delivering and the value of it and even the vision for making an impact. I was very confident in that. Confident in my ability to lead people one to one or to lead meetings or yeah. There I guess there's levels to confidence.
Andrew Simpson:So in some ways, I think people would think I was confident. In others, they knew that I was still a kid, right, trying to figure this out. I had team members that were far older than me, right, that, you know, sometimes the way they would look at me, like, they'd be like, oh, Andrew, that's Why? I thought I had this perfect. Right?
Alex Judd:I've always done
Andrew Simpson:this well. Yeah.
Alex Judd:How did you grow in confidence? Do you think particularly in those areas that you didn't feel confident.
Andrew Simpson:I mean, I'm a you know this. I think we're both similar in this way. I'm an avid learner. Right? I love reading.
Andrew Simpson:I love growing. I love going to conferences. So anytime I recognized my incompetence in an area, and this is probably rooted in insecurity. Right? And anytime I recognized incompetence, I would make sure I invested in some sort of a program or a coach or something that would give me the ability to grow in that area.
Andrew Simpson:And over time, I've learned, you know, what the Bible teaches, which is his grace is made perfect in our weak or his strength is made perfect in our weakness. Right? So I've tried as best as I can, and every day it's a journey, but to embrace whenever I feel incompetent in an area now and actually allow the Lord to show up in that versus trying to just grow my way through it.
Alex Judd:We're now What? Ten years removed from the time that we're talking about now. I haven't been in business on my own. I've been in business on my own half that time. Right?
Alex Judd:But I I look back to even five years ago now for me, and I look back, and I'm like, some of the stuff you do is so dumb. Like, I can't pull you know? And sometimes it's just like, there's a smarter way to do business. Sometimes it's like, man, there were other people on the side of those decisions, on the side of those mistakes, on the side of those, like, fallibilities and weaknesses. How do you move forward from knowing, like, the type of leader that you have been in the past and and not just feel guilty or burdened by where you've been?
Alex Judd:Does that question make sense?
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. For sure. I think it's the way that an athlete has to move past mistakes quickly. You gotta have a short memory. You gotta extract the good from the past and then bring that forward into the future.
Andrew Simpson:We tend to forget what we should remember and remember what we should forget. And so just knowing that about myself and people in general, like, I've never well, I shouldn't say never. Over these ten years, one thing I am very grateful for is I've always very quickly after a mistake or bad experience or failure or setback, I'm pretty disciplined at looking back and saying, okay. What did that mean? And then how can I take that and move forward with it?
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. I just have never been someone that has been prone to staying in the past too long in a negative dwelling type of sense. So, again, I think that's I think that's God's grace more than just Andrew's ingenuity or genius. You know what I mean?
Alex Judd:So Yeah. Absolutely. Praise God.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. Actually, it might have been a head injury I had back in high school, but now I just I forget the past. I love that. Really?
Alex Judd:I like the God's grace answer a little
Andrew Simpson:It could be God's grace too.
Alex Judd:That's true. Yeah. That's very true. I love that. That's hilarious.
Alex Judd:What was there any moment in 2014 to 2016 that you look back and you would say, like, oh, that was, like, pivotally challenging, like, really, really difficult, like a valley moment?
Andrew Simpson:I don't think so. I got I got engaged in 2015, married in 2016. It was obviously, starting a business is not easy by any means, but there were no major challenges. I think that God was really just protecting and preserving us. Right?
Andrew Simpson:Preserving me. There wasn't anything major that I went through during that time.
Alex Judd:How long did you and Daniella date before you got engaged?
Andrew Simpson:We dated we started dating in 2012. Okay. Got engaged in 2015.
Alex Judd:Okay. So you had been dating for three years. So so start a business in '14, engaged in '15, married in '16. That's a lot of life change very, very fast. That's wild.
Alex Judd:Okay. So then that kinda brings us up to the the growth chapter. Right? Where describe for us, like, what actually happened in the business during the growth chapter, and then also give us perspective into what happened in your life during that chapter too.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. I love, Andy Stanley talks about when you're the only hot dog shop in town, it's easy to be the best. Right? And so I think that while we weren't the only personal training facility in our area, we weren't the only place that was training athletes as our main core competency. We were the only ones that were doing it with a hyper focus on customer service and the experience that people had when they walked in our doors.
Andrew Simpson:We were the only ones that were really talking about mindset because very quickly after starting it, I knew that I didn't just, like I knew that just helping people with their physical health and fitness, while it was life changing, and I still believe it is, I knew we could impact so much more. Because when a person comes in for fitness training, for whatever reason, they're very open to mental and emotional coaching as well and and healing and even spiritual. So I think that because of that, because we are so focused on training the whole person and people just had this, it's the Maya Angelou quote. People forget what you did. They figure what you said, but they'll never forget the way you made them feel.
Andrew Simpson:We, like that was in the center of all of our trainings for for our team, all of our systems. It was all about how do we make sure people feel different when they come in and when they leave. And since we did that and we were so hyper focused on it, it just grew and grew, and people referred, and it was, you know, what people said. It was remarkable, right, to what they experienced when they would come in. And so it grew, and we probably went from a 100 clients in '20, 15.
Andrew Simpson:At the end of 2015, we expanded up to maybe 350, clients Wow. In a in a matter of just a couple years. And so, yeah, that growth, it was still fairly linear. I wouldn't say it was we never felt like the exponential growth that a tech startup might feel. Right?
Andrew Simpson:Like, we went from having, you know, five employees to 12 during that time, which is more than doubling. So we felt it, but, again, it wasn't overwhelming. Mhmm. Yeah.
Alex Judd:And and when you like, if we were to look at 2016, Andrew, and, like, the the way we would describe your leadership in 2016 compared to 2019, so on the back end of that phase, how would you say your leadership changed in that time?
Andrew Simpson:Well, we had our first child, so I started to learn a lot about true leadership and what that looks like.
Alex Judd:Isn't that wild? Yeah. It's a forcing function in some ways.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. Yeah. It is. I I think from 2016 to 2019, if you were to ask my team how my leadership style changed, I think that they would just say that I continued to let go of more and more control. I I sought more of their of the team's feedback and opinions, and and genuinely, like, I I started to realize through challenges and having a kid even, I started to realize how much I didn't actually know.
Andrew Simpson:And one of the greatest things that I did was got, one of our business coaches at the time, he went around and and interviewed my spouse and then two or three of our our leaders that reported directly to me, and he interviewed them and asked them all the questions about me, right, to find out where were my blind spots, what were my strengths that I needed to focus more on, what should I stop doing. And, mean, getting some of that feedback was really, really valuable.
Alex Judd:What were some of the things that were revealed in that feedback, if you don't mind sharing?
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. Yes. This is back in 2019. And some of the things I wanna say, the the manipulation type thing that I was alluding to earlier, that was more pre that time. But still, I I had this strong understanding of psychology and mindset, and so I would always have that temptation to utilize that to get people to think the way I was thinking or that I wanted them to think.
Andrew Simpson:Mhmm. And so that still God was still working somewhat that out of me, I would say, during that time. So
Alex Judd:Almost just like tactics or, like, kinda like some Chris Voss stuff or or
Andrew Simpson:like Exactly.
Alex Judd:Yeah.
Andrew Simpson:Yep.
Alex Judd:And and so it's, but the thing one of the things that I know about you as your friend is like you're it's not like you're keeping that stuff a secret. Like, you're constantly exposing your team. You're like, Daniella, you have to read these books too.
Andrew Simpson:Like Oh,
Alex Judd:100%. Like, no. They're like, you're doing that thing to me right now. Like Yeah. And and they're like, you're mirroring or framing or, like, labeling.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. Well, I think when like, I always have had really, really, really strong convictions about what I believed in the business and about what was in the best interest of our clients or even our team. And so I would come at it through that very strong stance. And, and that's something I'm still like, I think that over the years, even, like, Joe, my business partner, he would say that I've gotten better and better about not coming into a situation with a predetermined set of answers in my mind about what I think it should be. Right?
Andrew Simpson:But I think that that when you have a strong conviction, I think that the temptation is to, not truly seek out genuinely seek out what other people are thinking or the opinions of others. So that was some stuff that I, that became more and more clear. I think that everybody said, you know, Andrew only has one speed, and it is not slow. And so, that tends to rub off on the rest of the organization. He's very passionate, but with passion, the flip side of that is, you know, sometimes you're just too aggressive.
Andrew Simpson:Right? Yeah. And so, yeah, those are those are some of the things. There was more. Mhmm.
Andrew Simpson:Hopefully, I've worked on at least half of them. Yeah.
Alex Judd:I like that. What were the strengths? Maybe even hit like they weren't strengths that you had to tap into in the hustle stage, but in the growth stage, you you actually started to find like, oh, I'm actually pretty good at this.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. I mean, I've always been a great coach. Right? But as the business and we'll get into this a little bit later. As the business grew, I needed to lead more, right, which is different when you're leading a growing organization is very different than coaching people.
Andrew Simpson:Right? There's elements of coaching that have to happen, but, alright, one is client facing, one is, team facing. And so, you know, the strengths of mine were definitely in coaching. And with that, I loved developing our team members from a personal, professional, spiritual standpoint. Right?
Andrew Simpson:And so I loved, like, helping them have breakthroughs. And so a lot of our meetings, even one on one meetings I would have with our team, like, they turned into coaching sessions. And I think our team liked it, right, for the most part. They they enjoyed it because I genuinely wanted to see them have breakthroughs. To me, it was like and I I even remember saying these words.
Andrew Simpson:I'm like, I don't care about the business right now. Like, I just wanna, like, figure out, like, well, let's talk about, like, how do we, like, help you have your breakthrough that we that I that you wanna have and that I want you to have. And so I think that was probably my strength. And, again, on the flip side, it was definitely a weakness for the business. Right?
Alex Judd:How did that show up as a weakness for the business?
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. I mean, our team meetings, like, I would I would bring in guest speakers or I would have us watch a video or I would have us, read books, and it was like there was no structure around, like, what happened in the business last week and what are the things we need to do this week. It was about just, like, how do we grow? And I think that an element of that, though, was so good for the foundation of the business because I still believe to this day, like, your business will never outgrow the personal growth of the the people that you have, right, and and the leadership of your team. So I was always doubling down and investing on ways to help our team members grow personally and as leaders and professionals.
Alex Judd:It's such an interesting like, when you look back, like, would you do that differently now and today? Or would you look back and be like, I you know, there were there's a cost to everything we choose to do, and that's a cost, quite frankly, that I'm willing to pay just because the payoff of investing so much in personal growth was totally worth it.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. I don't think I would change it.
Alex Judd:Really?
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. I mean and I've never and I think this is like, I'm I'm really glad that I've never looked at it this way, but I'll never forget the first time I went to another business and heard the leader say something along the lines of, we have x number of dollars in payroll in this meeting right now, so we have to make sure it's productive. And, like, it had never dawned on me that when I bring Alex Judd in to talk to our team about owner's mindset. Right? Like, never dawned on me, like, oh, I'm paying all of our team members right now to hear this.
Andrew Simpson:Like, I'm just like, this is just good for the business. Like, why wouldn't we do this? You know? Like, I just never I never equated, like, I'm wasting money on this right now or, you know, even if it's even if you look at those things as an investment, like, I never just even had the mindset of, like, payroll dollars going out the door or yeah. I don't know why.
Alex Judd:And you're almost saying that as, like, a positive thing.
Andrew Simpson:I think it was a positive thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To to some degree, you could start to have poor financial stewardship there if you're not thinking about where the dollars are going Sure.
Andrew Simpson:Which to me, that was that was But if they're going
Alex Judd:to Alex Judd doing an ownership mentality training, I mean
Andrew Simpson:You you would would think it's for a good cause. Right? It's true.
Alex Judd:Yeah. Okay. So so you talk about shifting to, the growth stage, if that's how we're gonna describe it, or, no, we're shifting from the growth stage in '16 and '19 to scale in 2020. Did it feel like a tipping point moment? Like, literally a dis a line in the sand decision that's made?
Alex Judd:Like, we are entering a new chapter now. Yes. Okay. Can you describe that?
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. So we when we went and implemented EOS, entrepreneurial operating system Yeah. We had a guy that came in and shared basically, he pre framed this in a way that got us thinking this way. Right? He said this is going to change things in your business.
Andrew Simpson:Like, there's no two ways about it. Like, this will reveal some of the things that are existing in the business right now that will hold it back. So this implementing a true and and now we actually use more of Path for Growth's operating system that you guys have helped us implement. But regardless of when you op when you implement operationalization into your business to any degree, it's going to expose things. It's gonna help you to recognize things that maybe are you're tolerating right now or that are not completely detrimental to the business, but they're probably gonna hold you back from growing in a healthy way.
Andrew Simpson:And so he he told us right off the bat, like, is going to be a new season for you all, and he had a hunch that some of the ways we were doing things fly by the seat of Andrew's decisions weren't gonna actually help, the business get to where we wanted to go. So, yeah, it definitely was a turning point for sure. Did
Alex Judd:it feel like a decision that you made? Like, okay. I'm opting into this new chapter now?
Andrew Simpson:It did. Yeah. Yeah. After reading the book traction, it definitely set me up for that belief that, like, this is going to be kind of a, yeah, a new chapter.
Alex Judd:And you so you knew you were kinda opting in. You're saying, I'm I'm gonna go through this season of transformation change because our business can go through this. Did was it still hard?
Andrew Simpson:Oh, yeah. Tons of pushback from team members that I believed and still believe were the right people for the team at the time, like, just really good people, but they did not like accountability. They did not like the structure. And even just implementing a weekly leadership team meeting that had the same structure each time was like, woah. Like, this is different for PFP.
Alex Judd:Yeah. Was it hard for you, or did you literally have your, like, buy in, I've made the decision moment, and then from there, you're like, this is the direction that we're going.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. I knew we couldn't keep running things the way that we had been running them. Why? I think that it was definitely too built around me and and my decisions and what does Andrew think. And so as the business grew, that just amplified.
Andrew Simpson:And a member, a year prior, we had our first kid. So my priorities were starting to shift, right, in terms of what I believed was most important. The beauty of children. That's right. Thank you, Jack.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. And so I just I was starting to feel that weight of and we'll get into this. Like, I was actually in the wrong seat, right, running the organization day to day, so that was part of it. And I saw that this was a path to help us as a full team decide who are the right people for different roles. So I I kinda sensed that my role would change for sure.
Andrew Simpson:But then, yeah, just the idea of having structure, I didn't know what it would feel. If if I had if I had known at the time what it was gonna feel like to go through the change, I might not have opted in for it. Really? Maybe not because it was it really made me question things for a while, especially when we had some really good team members, some really quality coaches that I knew cared about what we were doing. They cared about the clients, and they started to say things like, it's getting too bureaucratic or it's getting too, corporate.
Andrew Simpson:We had the word corporate come up so many times.
Alex Judd:Yeah.
Andrew Simpson:And thank god for my business partner, Joe, who challenges things like that. He says, yeah. But there are things about corporations that are really, really good too, so we should probably look at those. Right? Like
Alex Judd:Yeah. It's like if by corporate, you mean organized and, like, functional, then you might be right. We're getting a little corporate.
Andrew Simpson:Like, why do I have to run a warm up the same as him? Like, well
Alex Judd:That's interesting, though, that you say almost like, thank goodness for Joe, because it kinda sounds like what you're saying there is if it was just you left your own devices, the minute you heard the word corporate, you might have balked and been like, oh my gosh. You're so right. I never wanna become that.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. I'm a high s on the disc. Yeah. So that's kind of like my natural inclination is to like, I want everyone to be happy. Right?
Andrew Simpson:And so I would if if I didn't have the the at the time, we were starting to build that structure and those kind of checks and balances where it wasn't just Andrew making all the decisions, if I didn't have other people bouncing decisions off of, then as soon as I would have heard people that were upset, it would have really it would have kept me up at night for the next three nights. I would have spent way too much time thinking about it and probably would have gone the route of, you know what? We should just kinda go back to the way things were. That might have happened.
Alex Judd:Who knows? But Sure. Sure. Thank god it didn't. How was god forming you in that season and and forming you personally?
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. This is also I mean, this is just about a year and some change after my dad had passed away as well. So I was going through a lot of, I think, the way that God was forming me during that season was recognizing more and more the value of time, attention, and family. Like, it really was I mean, for from 2014 to 2019, my business was everything. It was just like PFP, and it never felt like a burden.
Andrew Simpson:It never felt, like, who was the girl that I was doing it hand in hand with for all those first five years, like, she would tell you too, like, it was just fun. And we chose to be there all the time, and our spouses were supportive of it, and we loved it. But then, like, my dad passed away. Six weeks later, our first child was born. Six months after that is when we started to really think about, like, operationalizing the business and and having more systems and processes.
Andrew Simpson:So it was just all, like, just connecting those dots, even thinking about it now. Like, it was really preparation for what's most important in the season. Is it the comfort of the way things used to be, or is it a business that is still gonna accomplish the mission at a very high level? It won't look exactly the way it looked before. Mhmm.
Andrew Simpson:And you're gonna be able to be a present dad and husband. Like yeah, that was it.
Alex Judd:It's pretty interesting for you to say, like, in 2014, one of your weaknesses is hard conversations, like some of the, like, hard decisions and working with those in through other people. And then we look up in 2020 and a little bit and some change after 2020, you're saying, like, I'm actively making all these decisions that are probably opting you and the team in for more hard conversations and things like that. Yep. This has obviously been, like, a little bit of a drive by, and I want us to to park more on Stage 4 as we kind of go into, like, the membership side of this conversation. But I guess what I would love for you to do is talk about the decision that you most recently made that in some ways feels like the fourth chapter of this story that we're talking about.
Alex Judd:Give us a little bit of context on what that is for you and your kind of leadership growth journey.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. Yeah. So we're now we're now at four locations, three different counties, and our team's grown to 30 couple of people. And we've had this structure of visionary integrator for the last four three three, four years, and that has been really, really good. And I've operated in the visionary role for most of those four years.
Andrew Simpson:And at our current growth trajectory and and just where the business is at, I had been feeling and sensing for the last probably couple of years that there might be another area of the business that I could add more value in and be more in my strength zone than the current role of visionary CEO. And as we started exploring what that would look like, we started to re to play around with the idea of restructuring things. What would it look like for Andrew to no longer be the CEO of of the gyms? Our vision for for PFP and, really, we'll just call it the company, the vision is bigger than the 30 gym locations that we're we're believing that God has in store for us over the next, you know, five to seven years. Although that's a big big part of the vision, of course.
Alex Judd:Sure.
Andrew Simpson:And so we're we're believing, and I've always believed that it was bigger than that. I write books. We wanna have, mastermind groups and coaching programs and have other ways to scale our impact for the the mission and the niche that we're in of impacting student athletes. And so the gyms are the way that we do that physically. And so I've always believed that the vision was bigger, but I never knew what it would look like for us to actually step into those other we call them pillars, the four pillar vision for the gyms Mhmm.
Andrew Simpson:Or for for PFP. The gyms being one big pillar. And so over the years, since 2018 after I wrote my first book, 2019, I've, like, dabbled in, like, the creation of, like, new products and new business units. And as the gyms have grown, though, I've always been pulled back to, okay. Now I've gotta focus on the most important thing here.
Alex Judd:Sure. You're kinda saying, like, it's like you'd write a book, and then it would be book time, and then it was like, okay. Now let's focus back
Andrew Simpson:on the gym. Focus back on the gyms. Exactly. And, and it wasn't until the end of last year, 2025, that I felt like the Lord was calling me to slow down big time, take a sabbatical, which I did, and, get clarity on what's next, what's the next part of that chapter. And it just became very clear, like, we we would be dumb not to at least try what it would look like for Andrew to not be CEO of the gyms because we have a very competent leader who I've mess mentioned him a couple times, Joe, who could be that person.
Andrew Simpson:And for Andrew to actually dive into these other pillars and give it a fair shot. Right? So that's that's where we're at right now.
Alex Judd:How exciting. Well, I appreciate you for, sharing that in real time. Final question for you before we kinda dive deeper into that conversation on the season that you're in. And and, really, I wanna talk about the season that you're in now, the sabbatical, and, like, what that process looked like and what that taught that taught you, but then also the decision or, like, kind of even just the inkling stages of the decision. But before we get into all of that, say you're sitting down and having coffee or maybe having a workout, with someone and and you finish this sweaty brutal workout, and then they they just say, man, I am at this spot where I kinda realize, like, it feels like I'm turning a page or turning to a new chapter and, like, the type of leader that I'm going to need to become in order to really effectively lead the organization that we now have is going to have to be different.
Alex Judd:And they're like, I don't know if I can do that. I don't know if I want to do that, and they're getting a little bit shy of kinda crossing that chasm. How would you counsel, or what advice would you give that person?
Andrew Simpson:Can I share the four, buckets that you gave me to think through? For sure you can.
Alex Judd:You're welcome to. You're gonna have to remind me of the four buckets.
Andrew Simpson:Yeah. You gave a good framework to think through, but I I won't talk about all of them. I'll just talk about maybe one or two. One is motive. Right?
Andrew Simpson:Like, what is your motive for, either deciding to continue to be that CEO or main leader for the organization or your motive for, maybe promoting someone else else into that title and and giving yourself I haven't even thought much about what it actually was for me. Was it a demotion? Was it a sideways a lateral move? Was it a just whole different business? Like, I don't know.
Andrew Simpson:I don't think too much about, like, what what are the titles of all those types of things, but, like, what is your motive for going one way or the other? And if it's driven by fear or greed, I would say, you might wanna check that motive. Right? But if it's driven by something that you believe God's put in your heart, gifts, passions that he's given you, and what's in the best interest of all parties, which stakeholders was another one of those buckets that we had talked through, where it's like, who are all the people that are involved in this decision and who will be affected by it, and how will they be affected by it and impacted by it? And so, yeah, thinking through some things like that, I think, were a really, really good step in the right direction for me.
Andrew Simpson:And I even told this to, our you know, people from our leadership team. Like, I told them, like, over my sabbatical, I wrestled with, like, am I running away from something right now just because it's hard and because it feels uncomfortable? Like, why am I doing this? Right? And so that those are the things that I wrestled with.
Alex Judd:Man. Well, thank you for sharing that. We'll dive, deeper into that conversation in Basecamp. But, man, thank you for kinda walking through. Jeez.
Alex Judd:I mean, over ten years in under 30 print. It's pretty pretty epic, Andrew. So thank you.
Andrew Simpson:You got it.
Alex Judd:Hey, y'all. Thanks so much for watching. If you want more content like this, we've got some killer stuff planned. Make sure you rate, review, and subscribe. Let's go.
Alex Judd:Let's go. Let's go.
