About Jerry Scarlato
What was I going to do now that I had decided to completely shift my life's direction?
I thought I had it all planned out. I thought I was moving in the right direction. I thought I on the brink of something big.
But sometimes fate has a way of intervening and letting you know that it's time to shift directions...which is never easy, of course, because usually when you've gotten to the point of thinking things were moving in the right direction, you're pretty bought in.
Before we get to that, let me introduce myself...
I'm Jerry Scarlato, founder and host of the Good Wolf Project. People close to me call me Scarzan, which is a good place to start my story...
I was an athlete growing up. As long as I can remember, I was playing sports or doing something athletic, from gymnastics to basketball to football to baseball...I pretty much did it all.
My main sports in high school ended up being football and track after essentially getting kicked out of basketball (my junior year, the basketball coach sat me down before tryouts and said "Jerry, you have an aggression inside of you that just doesn't do well on the basketball court. I think it's best you stick with football." Consequently, that same year the nickname "Scarzan" came to be when my cousin was yelling "Get him Scarzan! Get him Scarzan!" from the sidelines after I knocked our quarterback's helmet off when I hit him...I'd say the basketball coach was right).
There was a lot that I learned during this time in life...
I learned that, when I wanted something enough and put my mind to it, I usually got it...
I also learned that I was stubborn and hard headed, which meant that there were times when I should've stepped away from an idea sooner but didn't, which would come to bite me in the ass down the road.
Being single-mindedly driven towards something and being stubborn and hard headed are two sides to the same coin...
As I would get older, I started to understand that every strength will lead directly to a weakness...
In this case, my strength of being able to drive towards something with unrelenting determination also means I would hang on longer than I needed at times and, at other times, stick to my guns even when it upset those around me.
But I digress...
After high school I played some more football in college, even though I enjoyed track more.
My dad was a football fan and always enjoyed watching me play, so I decided to stick with football for that reason.
This leads me to another lesson I've learned as I've gotten older...I'm also a people pleaser.
Most people don't see that as a bad thing...and, too a degree, it can certainly be beneficial.
But there have been a number of times throughout my life when I've made big decisions in favor of making someone else happy, even though it made me less happy.
This is always a recipe for disaster...
Because even though it may feel comfortable in the moment to make someone else happy with your decision, it's worth remembering that YOU'RE the one that has to live with the consequences of that decision.
It's always worth loving and caring about those around you, especially close loved ones...but not to the point of letting their opinions dictate your actions in life.
At any rate, I digress again...
Outside of playing football, college was pretty much uneventful...
My senior of college, my brother-in-law bought a gym and asked me to work the front desk part time. Naturally, I went for it because, well, it was an easy job, and it fit within one of my passions of life...weight training and working out.
After graduating from high school, I started picking up more hours at the gym. At some point, people started asking me to train them because...well...it looked like I knew what I was doing (even though I had been in the weight room for over 10 years at that point, I was certainly not prepared to tell someone else how they should train their body...there's a difference between knowing how to do something, and knowing the best way to tell someone else how they should do something).
After accumulating a number of clients, I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and get certified to make it official that I was a "professional" personal trainer. So I ended up getting the CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist) just in case I decided to dive into training athletes.
As I got further and further into my twenties, I knew that I wanted to open my own business and get married before the age of 30. So I set out to do just that (if you recall, I'm usually able to achieve something when I set my mind to it...which can be helpful and can be harmful).
Fast forward to 2013, 10 years after graduating high school and 4 years after graduating college (yes, it took me 6 years to graduate college...sometimes I like to take my time doing things also) and, at the age of 29, was set to get married in July and open my training studio, Thrive Fitness, in October of that year.
Both were big milestones in my life, especially since I had achieved them before the age of 30. While I was on my way to building a business and relationship that could last forever, life was prepared to throw me a curveball when I least expected it.
We kept Thrive Fitness in the same space for 4 years. It was only about 1200 square feet. So, while it was perfect for us when we were first getting started, we also quickly outgrew it.
We moved to our new, expanded location in the summer of 2017, which was around 5500 square feet...more than 4x the size of our original space!
When we moved spaces, we ended renaming the gym because we wanted to trademark the name and logo (Thrive Fitness was already trademarked in the fitness space, as you can imagine...another thing to think about if you're planning on opening a business). We changed the name to Thriveolgy.
Despite moving into a place that was 4x bigger than our previous space (which, of course, comes with 4x the overhead), we adapted quickly and started to grow our membership base.
Things were moving along pretty well for the first few years. And then, of course, in the spring of 2020, the world shut down and, for 3 months, we closed our doors during the great COVID debacle.
But just because we shut down didn't mean that work came to a stop. If we couldn't have in-person classes, then we would do online classes for our Members to keep us busy and to keep them in shape during this down time.
The online classes were fun and exciting at times. But, as you well know, it didn't at all compare to having a high-frequency group in the gym sweating and working hard.
Thankfully, at the beginning of June 2020, the world was ready to open back up and, our Members being the dedicated group they were, everyone was chomping at the bit to get back in the gym.
And we were more than grateful to have real people to train.
The next couple of years were a complete whirlwind. The end of 2020 was rather strong for us despite being shut down. Since people had been cooped up for 3 months, and suddenly had yet another reason to start prioritizing their health (as if they REALLY needed more), they were itching to be a part of our community.
Then, 2021 and 2022 were just weird from a business standpoint because people's buying behavior was way off. First they were ready to get out and be active. Then, at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022, suddenly people shifted away from prioritizing their health and quickly back to their old ways.
So, by the time the end of 2022 had come around, we had had extreme lows, then extreme highs, then back to extreme lows again in just a matter of 18-24 months. Needless to say, this was not easy on my marriage, either.
Throughout this whole time, my wife was also working at the gym full time (ironically, she quit her job in January of 2020 to start working at the gym full time...as the saying goes, timing is everything). She wasn't as risk tolerant as I am, so she took all of this much harder than I did.
And once she noticed that people started leaving in 2022 after having such big success the previous year or so, she struggled to stay engaged with the gym at all. I don't blame her because it was certainly a hard time. Being raised to stay away from entrepreneurial endeavors, she just wasn't prepared for the volatility that came with that time.
It was largely due to the experience during this time that, in June of 2023, my wife and I separated and ultimately got divorced at the end of the year.
The major factors that played into our divorce had been apparent in our relationship for a long time. Those factors were just exacerbated during the time from 2020 to the end of 2022.
So, although the ups and downs of that time were the ultimate undoing of our relationships, by no means was that the overall cause. The cause had been there for a while...we were just ignoring it.
This goes back to my hard-headedness I mentioned earlier...
My wife and I both had a feeling that we weren't a fit for a long time before we actually got divorced. But we pushed and pushed and pushed, assuming things might eventually change and get better.
Sometimes, you just have to face the facts, cut your losses, and move on. You do nobody any favors by pushing forward when it's clear things aren't working.
While my wife and I were separated, though, I fully intended on continuing on with the gym...I wasn't going to let the separation stop me.
Then, through another string of events and sudden strike of fate, it felt like that drive was torn away just as quickly as I had decided to keep going.
Between August and September of 2023, a number of things happened that caused me to second guess my dedication to keep the gym going...
Suddenly, in August, we had a bunch of Members leave because my wife and I were separated. This made for a weird environment in the gym overall, but I thought we could push through it.
Then one of our Coaches wanted to quit (as it turned out, she had a bad feeling about the separation impacting the gym and wanted to get out before things got worse...it may have been a premonition), so I had to replace her. Then, the Coach we replaced her with wanted to quit just a few weeks into being hired.
The nail in the coffin was our 10 year anniversary. We threw a big anniversary bash for Thriveology after being open for 10 years...although, it didn't end up being a bash...it ended up being a bust. We put this fun party together with food trucks, bounce houses, face painting and dunking booths. We distributed flyers throughout the city, did Facebook posts...and, still, nobody showed up.
After the anniversary party, I went to Florida for some thinking time. It was during that trip, when my mind was clear and calm, that I decided it was time to move on from everything...it was time to close the gym.
And so, on Thanksgiving Day of 2023, we closed Thriveology.
That brings us back to the beginning of this story when I was trying to figure out what happens next...
Well, of course, I know what that looks like and the mission is no different than it was when I started in that small 1200 square foot studio...it's just that the path to get their is different.
The mission is to help you achieve the ALPHA LIFE...to achieve the life you want and deserve. It's to bring your health, wealth, love and happiness to a level you've never known possible. Because I've lived through the challenges so you don't have to. I've learned from my mistakes so you can focus on becoming your best.
That's why we're here...to take you to the next level.
Here's to helping you reach the ALPHA LIFE...whatever that is to you...
