Myriad Fitness and Health is Leading Indianapolis to Better Health
In this first community call, I sit down with Jared Byczko, CEO of Myriad Fitness & Health to discuss how they are helping Indianapolis become a healthier city. You can visit them at https://myriadfit.com
Community Call #1 - Jared Byczko - Myriad Fitness & Health
Attendees
Jared Byczko, Jeremy McGrew
Transcript
This editable transcript was computer generated and might contain errors.
Jeremy McGrew: What's up, Indianapolis, welcome to community calls with Indy Fitness Mag, where we sit down with local health and fitness leaders to learn about how people and organizations are improving our community's health in order to achieve our l2f mission. Just a few short years ago, Indianapolis was ranked dead last as the unhealthiest major city in America. So we created Indy Fitness Mag to build a community dedicated to helping our city. Go l2f last to first in the city, health rankings. Today in our first community call, it's only fitting that we have a guest who is leading the charge in a major way. Jared, the CEO of Myriad Health and fitness. Myriads formerly known as crossfit naptown has been serving the community for more than a decade. We'll start out as a crossfit. Affiliate has grown into a local behemoth and one of the best things and all of it. Indianapolis Jared, thank you for leading our community. And thanks for joining me. How are you?
Jared Byczko: I'm good. I appreciate that intro. my reach out to you more often and…
Jeremy McGrew: Yeah.
Jared Byczko: get some more writing and some copy from you so I appreciate that.
Jeremy McGrew: Hey If you ever need any pump up speech or anything, I got you.
Jared Byczko: the only thing I need in there is just the intro song, I'm walking up the bat, so
Jeremy McGrew: Yeah, I'll try and throw in some inspirational music as we get this thing we're on. So we'll do that next time. Yeah, tell us a little bit about,…
Jared Byczko: I appreciate you having it.
Jeremy McGrew: who you represent, what you guys do.
Jared Byczko: Yeah, no, I appreciate that. As I mentioned, kind of rain me in, as I go, because I can go left and right and so many different directions but originally from Maryville, Indiana. Northwest Indiana the region came down this way. Indianapolis in 2003 played college soccer at iupui with my best friend Peter Brozavan. We both went the same high school together and fast forward to 2011. We started Crossfit Naptown here in downtown Indianapolis. At that time. There were too many gyms located downtown Indianapolis. You had maybe Gold's Gym You had Nifs and a couple other small boutique type shops and there aren't too many cross, It was brand new back in 2011 as well. So we tried our best to be a first mover advantage, be downtown and Build a box crossfit gym from there and we were successful at that. and then over the years from 2011, about 2014 15, we rebranded to Naptown fitness. We realize we could make a bigger imp.
Jared Byczko: Act on our city and the people that we are serving if we were more than just a crossfit gym because crossfit, have pending on where you sit in that realm of fitness can be intimidating to others and we didn't want that. and then with that as well we actually branched out to have a yoga studio at that time, practice into Yoga boot camp, class called Naptown Swift and then we had our crossfit naptown program. So those are our three core programs up until about In 2017-18 or so. And then finally in 2020 one, we decided to rebrand to myriad health, and fitness to really encompass, all the programs we have. And it just helped us kind of bring that brand synergy together to where we have myriad crossfit,
Jeremy McGrew: He?
Jared Byczko: myriad, boot camp, Mary, Yoga and your nutrition myriad longevity, married weightlifting, we have a weightlifting team as well, that travels nationally and goes to national events.
Jared Byczko: Solutions to the potential situations that others may have. And we very cognizant not to say, problems, people may have, but whatever it is, people are seeking, we have a solution for that, or at least we hope to believe that we do for those in our Indianapolis community.
Jeremy McGrew: Wonderful. I saw the longevity and this is just more of a selfish question, what's that?
Jared Byczko: So longevity is it's meant to be for anyone, 50 years and older, it can be for anyone. Specifically, all of our programs are open to anyone accessible to everybody, but it's Monday Wednesdays and Fridays and it's a 10 am class 10 to 10:45 and It's a really fun class individuals coming from all over the city, usually have anywhere between four to 15 people in that class and just an older demographic. So, the class is a little bit more relaxed. I don't want to use the term slower, but our coaches give a little bit more leeway to the individuals in that class and the workouts aren't as intense. And just really helps to speak to one of our uniques is coaching across all generations. So whether it's kids, two three, four years old, all the way up to you, I believe our oldest member 78, Jill and Jill, run circles around people and just hilarious while watching her in the longevity class and her community vibe is just amazing.
Jeremy McGrew: Nice work. Jill. So what you're doing a lot of different things and since I've met you, Your impact is continued to grow. What has inspired you to continue to build on your mission is to help people around, Indianapolis get healthy, right?
00:05:00
Jared Byczko: Yeah, to be very specific, our goal is to make Indianapolis Top 10 Healthy, Fit City in our country. We call that out about six, seven years ago, as one as our vision statement, essentially, and what we know, this is why I love being on this. Call is, We know, we can't do this alone. We can't do this on our own. We could only service so many people with physical location. One of our goals in the future and many other businesses done as successful. We haven't really dove into this yet, is to allow for a little bit more of a remote opportunity. Whether it be remote coaching, so we can access and reach more people. But right now, we are a physical location downtown and you can only service so many people in a physical space. So the soul for that, is to connect with individuals, such as yourself, connect, with other gym, owners, other fitness professionals and figure out how we can create a collective to solve the current problem that we have the obesity epidemic. the health crisis we have here in our state specifically but to speak to it more.
Jared Byczko: To the point is Indianapolis and we need to focus on that. So,
Jeremy McGrew: Yeah. And, I've seen that, we've been around. We started, I think seven years ago and you've been on that same play the whole time. So my hats off to you, What kind of challenges are you seeing as far as reaching more people and helping us to get that goal, to improve the city health? What kind of challenges do you come across?
Jared Byczko: Yeah. Lots of challenges, So accessibility is probably number one cost prevention,…
Jeremy McGrew: Yeah.
Jared Byczko: we're located downtown. So one of the quickest things, you can figure out is if an individual doesn't have transportation, doesn't have a car, doesn't have a bike. If there's not a bus route near them, how do they jump on a bus to be able to come down to us? And at the same time, we struggle personally as a business because we are a for-profit business and we do have a membership and we do have a specific client journey to get people into our programs. So how do we create a membership level? That's accessible enough from a cost perspective and low enough to where people can join us. But also How do we continue to work with individuals? We're currently working with whether it be through personal training or through crossfit or, our higher level programs that cost more. And how do we bridge that gap? And that's something we're going to be 12 years in this October and we're still trying to figure out. how do we do that?
Jeremy McGrew: Right.
Jared Byczko: So we don't have a saw. So that's a huge obstacle for us is the accessibility cost structure side of things and we've played with different opportunities. We actually went through a cohort last year with a local organization. The Mind Trust is a nonprofit here in Indianapolis that services, the public schools and they connected us to be a part of the Indianapolis Equity Cohort. So we actually worked with loved. Our New Orleans with two other schools, victory prep schools and finally prep schools, and work together to kind of solve. Diversity equity inclusion problems that we have within our individual spaces. So that's been something that's been interesting for us to try to uncover as well to figure out How do we make a more inclusive space. So we are available to all within and so that's been a huge obstacle of ours as well, because then that right away brings back the cost accessibility and how do people reach us?
Jeremy McGrew: Right.
Jared Byczko: So, that's the top school and another one is just a call that we have to dive too deep into this. It's just a politics of our city, I've worked hard, I don't know if you're familiar with National Fitness campaign but they're the individuals that build fitness courts throughout the country and I worked hard a couple years ago to try to get to the city to see if we can get a couple fitness courts.
Jeremy McGrew: He?
Jared Byczko: Essentially what they do is they take a tennis court or a basketball court, that's not being used anymore and they build it into a fitness court. So people can have access to fitness anywhere in the public and…
Jeremy McGrew: Right.
Jared Byczko: we unfortunately weren't able to get that launched at that time. And a lot of it always comes down to money funding and…
Jeremy McGrew: Right.
Jared Byczko: dollar. And Where's where the dollars being allocated and are we really, putting our money where our mouth is in a sense of we know we have an issue here but yet, we're not doing anything about it. So that's some of my personal opinions in there as well,…
Jeremy McGrew: Right.
Jared Byczko: of where we stand with some of the obstacles we have. and really actually
Jared Byczko: Making Indianapolis a healthy and fit city.
Jeremy McGrew: Yeah. In our, I guess you could say master plan part of that would be establishing the amount of influence where we can help. Kind of make those things be more likely to happen, and working in connection with our local government to try and bring out a better infrastructure for more parks work out facilities like that. you're talking about that. We really need that. Whenever you look at the city health rankings, The parks are they play a role in how your city ranks? And our parks are just abysmal as far as the amount of parks that we have. So I totally feel that
00:10:00
Jared Byczko: I don't know, this is a hundred percent true and I'm gonna call you on this. Maybe we could do our Google research here a little bit. But I think Indianapolis is a second largest city with the most parks in it. in the general vicinity of Greater Indianapolis we have over I think 200 or 300 parks which is I bold I believe is the second most and so I don't know if it's necessary that we don't have enough parks. I think we don't have enough green ways and access to those parks to get people to get to the parks to utilize. Those parks programming at the parks, which again, there's a lot that needs to happen. A lot of money in order to program, and have people actually go. I mean, I don't know. I have kids, I know you have a kid as well, and getting some of these parks that have pools even to get open during summer. Now, not only we don't have the people to then go be life guards at these pools and…
Jeremy McGrew: Right.
Jared Byczko: since the outdoors and do things and we can do a fact, check later. So sorry for that.
Jeremy McGrew: No.
Jared Byczko: Call out.
Jeremy McGrew: that's fine. I'm glad you mentioned that. So I don't know about how many parks I guess. I did say volume, I think the ranking is access to parks. And how many people are within?
Jared Byczko: Yep. Got it.
Jeremy McGrew: I think it's five minutes to a park.
Jeremy McGrew: So that's…
Jared Byczko: For sure,…
Jared Byczko: I would agree.
Jeremy McGrew: where we break really low.
Jared Byczko: Yeah. Similarly, the food deserts, right? you…
Jeremy McGrew: Right.
Jared Byczko: how many areas marginalized communities? in a city of Indianapolis? I don't have grocery stores within walking distance or within public transportation distance, which is again, now a systemic issue.
Jeremy McGrew: That.
Jared Byczko: Which is I wouldn't say part of a problem is a systemic issue of why we are ranked as low as we are as a city when it comes to being healthy and fit.
Jeremy McGrew: It was strategies, I know you mentioned. You tried to get involved with this a couple years ago. What other strategies are you using as an organization to at least encourage our community to improve itself? Not just really with your members just the overall community.
Jared Byczko: Yeah, one of my biggest goals and we were here and had a relationship pandemic and the paemic, certainly within our physical location messing things up. We had to close down a location that was in our own location and so really after pandemic state hyper focused downtown, but one of my dreams is the partner up with an organization such as IU Health, or another medical facility here in Indianapolis to where we have the structure, we have the system set up within our gym at myriad to onboard individuals who need us the most. And that's an individuals who, have chronic illnesses of some sort, whether it's whatever sickness is they have or if they're diabetic or whatever, the case may be those who need fitness need nutrition. Counseling need to have a community need to be accountable.
Jeremy McGrew: He?
Jared Byczko: We have that system, so I would love to be able to partner with somebody to where they go to a Doctor says, Hey you really need to start doing XYZ.
Jared Byczko: Sleeping eating better moving more focusing on your mental health as well and then recommended to us. And then we can take them into our one-on-one foundations, which then just slowly on board them into our system, and then they become a part of our community and then it becomes a lifestyle for them because that's ultimately what this is all about, is a lifestyle change, and it's getting people to understand, build the momentum, the confidence in themselves to change. Just a couple small,…
Jeremy McGrew: This. Is.
Jared Byczko: tiny little habits in their life, who then value the importance of, sleep nutrition and movement. And once they start building those habits and start, working those proverbial muscles as well as real muscles.
Jeremy McGrew: Right.
Jared Byczko: That's when things start to change a little bit there. But until we can start getting those individuals who really need the confidence to walk into the door and the prescriptions so to speak to walk into the door.
Jared Byczko: It's going to be hard to do, so.
Jeremy McGrew: Yeah, so, looking into the future, what are some of myriad's goals for the further improvement of our city? As far as health goes?
Jared Byczko: So I mean the short term right now is we're really focused on getting moves across the street we're moving to the Studs project if you're familiar. So the stuff is coming this big giant.
Jeremy McGrew: Yeah.
Jared Byczko: Ecos are not eco center but epicenter of just culture community And so we're gonna finally be more than just a destination location of our physical space. And now we're going to be within this ecosystem, which we're really excited about. So our hopes is within that foot traffic, people will become curious and see us, running around the stuff building doing workouts within the community as well, which is something that we've always done. And we have two free community workouts. We do weekly, whether it be through our myriad, yoga program, or through our fitness program, our move Sundays, we have classes at 8am that are open to the community. So just kind of giving back in that room, but really focusing on just getting ourself in front of as many people and breaking down the barrier of fitness.
00:15:00
Jared Byczko: Is intimidating, which it can be. And it is for a lot of people, but and our current mission is to not, make it intimidating for people to get more people into the doors, to find this lifestyle.
Jeremy McGrew: Yeah, I love that. So real quick. Before I move on. where can people find more information about the free classes?
Jared Byczko: A great question. I probably just go to myriad fit.com. So my riad fit.com and there You can click on a schedule and then you can go see. There are two free classes around Sundays. So the yoga one, Sunday, evenings in the fitness, one is Sunday mornings at 8 am
Jeremy McGrew: That's Okay, so my last question for you is, there's probably gonna be some people around here that listen to this show. that might want to get involved with you, or might have a connection that you could use. So what is something that myriad could use as far as what do you need to get closer to your goals and making the city healthier?
Jared Byczko: Honestly, it's a great question and the way I'll answer that is we have struggled since our rebrand one lesson I learned was Don't rebrand the middle of a pandemic because you can get lost within the world of social media and the Internet. A lot of people don't realize that d health and Naptown fitness is crossfit. Naptown is practiced into yoga. We've been here for 12 years. This October 8th is gonna be our 12th year. So we've been committed to this city and this community for a long time and we're gonna continue to be nothing has changed except for our name and a couple colors color schemes outside of that. It's the same people that are really wanting to change this community for the better. just pushing that out there. So people realize it's the same people that are wanting to do the same thing, which is making Annapolis a Top 10 healthy food city here in our country.
Jeremy McGrew: Awesome Thank you so much for spending some time with me. I love watching what you're doing. You're making a huge impact. So I'm glad we were able to start the community calls off with you.
Jared Byczko: Yeah, I appreciate that. I honestly didn't know. I was the first one. So, thanks for doing that. Appreciate it.
Jeremy McGrew: Yeah, you bet. All right, man, thank you so much everybody. Thanks for listening. If you found any value in this, we ask that you please share with your friends family. Anyone else concerned? If you would like to reach out to Jared Jerry, where can they find you?
Jared Byczko: Yeah, so two things, a byczko's my personal instagram. Otherwise you can find me on the myriad fit, myr iad f. I t at married fit or we have a married yoga as well on Instagram. We're on All the social channels, you can also just straight up, just shoot me an email Jared at marriedfit.com and I love connecting with people and building relationships.
Jeremy McGrew: Hey thanks man, thank you for all you do appreciate your time.