Meet Brian Casad of PARADIGM Gym in Lower Greenville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Casad.

Brian, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Where to begin, ever since I was a kid I would have never dreamed of being where I am today. Growing up in Winfield Kansas the thought of being a Spokesmodel/Cover Model or a quasi-fitness icon wasn’t even in my realm of a thought of what I wanted to become when I got older.

Being a slightly overweight/ awkward kid I didn’t exactly fit in with the cool crowd when I entered into middle school. It all started with that damn girl calling me a fat ass and telling me to leave a party when I was in 6th grade (basically because I wasn’t a part of the cool kids). Although there were many instances throughout middle school where I felt bullied or humiliated, this is one that just stuck out as that moment where I wanted to make a change, and change I did! Thus began my love for fitness and lifting weights. At the age of 14 I started getting my butt in the weight room day in and day out trying to gain muscle, better myself, and maybe increase my cool factor haha. It was a slow journey considering throughout middle school I was on C team basketball and B team football but the strength began to grow giving me more self-confidence and definitely an edge when it came to sports. Throughout high school I kept hard at it doing everything from football, baseball, wrestling, and power lifting gaining a little more notoriety with my fellow classmates. All of that of course many of you know is short lived and after high school none of that matters anymore, then comes my college years (where I lost my passion).

Starting college for me was like an adult middle school where you make your own rules lol. Needless to say I definitely let loose and just didn’t care anymore. I chose drinking over class and working out, let’s just say that combined with a mostly fast food and processed diet my body started to definitely show it! Don’t get me wrong I still lifted weights here and there but it was mainly to maintain some bulk so I didn’t look like a complete slob. Being that I chose the borderline alcoholic party boy route my grades also reflected my choices, graduating with a 2.4GPA and a DUI under my belt as well as being 45lbs overweight (245lbs), my prospects of finding a job in 2008 (the start of the recession) were few and far between.

Upon graduating college I migrated my way down to Dallas, luckily with a great job offer ready to start my new life! Not so fast, I went in to do all the paper work and get my back ground check completed and what do you know, my DUI came back to bite me in the ass leaving me jobless and feeling like I hit rock bottom. So the next month I spent countless hours searching for a job with no hope in site, I decided it was time to get back into the service industry by working at a nightclub and a restaurant just to get by. I ended up working service jobs for the next year and a half until I received a phone call from my uncle asking me to come work for him as a Real Estate Tax Consultant, I though yes! this is my break.
Within 1 month I had packed everything up and was on my way to Kansas City to start my new life! I was so excited and so motivated those first couple of weeks at my new job, but that quickly faded as I realized real quick that this was not at all what I wanted to do with my life, so again I thought my life was at a standstill, a void to say the least. Fast forward about a year and a half and I had about enough of the going out to eat for (unhealthy) lunch every day and just the misery of sitting behind a desk hating my life. So I decided to make a change, I started by running or working out at lunch and just eating something small and quick i.e. making small adjustments. I then found a little gym called TITLE Boxing Club where I am now the proud franchise owner of but we will talk about that in a little bit. I started going to TITLE in the mornings or after work about 2 or 3 days a week (another small adjustment) and let me tell you the pounds just started to melt away and my passion began to emerge once again. Reaching a turning point in my life, I finally realized I hated my job, like really just hated it, I dreaded waking up every morning to drag my ass down to the office to be miserable all day. I couldn’t take it anymore, so one day I just snapped and decided enough was enough, I trotted down to my uncles office and said with a tear in my eye “I just can’t do this anymore, I absolutely hate what I do” he respected me for coming in like a man and telling him straight up how I felt so he told me to go ahead and take off that day with two months’ severance pay and find what I wanted to do with my life.

That was it I was ready to make a change, business, food and fitness were always passions of mind so I started dreaming up ideas of restaurants, gyms, inventions etc but nothing really seemed viable. Personal training was also an option I considered but it just wasn’t the right choice. I then turned to looking into the TITLE Boxing Club franchise, well what do you know they just so happen to be franchising out starting the same month I quit my job (fate or luck or I just don’t know). My inquiry was sent and within the hour I was on the phone with TITLE asking me to come down to the office for a meeting. Well I waltzed in there with my head held high yet slightly petrified and for good reason, by the end of that meeting they thought I was just some 25 year old kid with a hope and a dream without a second thought on weather I could get together investors to buy into the franchise. Little did they know, I have been at my lowest and I have challenged my passion and I was ready to F-ing make this happen! Low and behold a week later I walked right back into that office and said where do I sign? I signed my franchise contract in August of 2011 making me the youngest franchisee in the system. So next thing you know I’m selling everything I had from stocks to my car to everything in my apartment to invest into my business, I picked up the little I had left and made the move back to Dallas!

Dallas the city I knew had amazing growth potential and the city I always knew I would return to. Let me tell you this, the road to success just got 50% steeper filled with glass rocks and worried ass me crying myself to sleep on the couch at night wondering whether I made the right decision or not. For the next year I slept on my brother’s couch trying to get this business off the ground all the while getting myself into better shape, finally focusing all my energy in the right direction. 3 months into moving to Dallas I received a phone call from one of my friends asking me to try out for a fitness video, so I decided what the hell we were right in the middle of our build out and I had some extra time (and needed the money) so I did it. Next thing you know I get a call from Beach Body LLC asking me if I would be interested in coming out to LA to film a fitness video (Body Beast), thus my fitness career was upon me! Let’s just say that was a wam bam thank you mam and now back to the real focus, making my business successful. It took me 6months to get my business up and running with every problem imaginable along the way, but I made it and it was beautiful! For the next 4 months I worked 100hr weeks, sometimes sleeping in the gym because I would close by 11pm and wake up at 5am to open the doors. I busted my ass day in and day out doing everything I could to keep our costs low teaching 3 to 4 classes a day and working the front desk because I could not afford to pay anyone full time. After those 4 months I finally got a little breathing room and invited my sister to come down to be my assistant manager.

October 2012, the girl I was dating at the time convinced me to apply for the Bodybuilding.com Spokesmodel competition, I thought to myself “I don’t have time for this” but I went ahead and applied anyway. Next thing you know I got top 20 then top then and then I won! (WTH) This was absolutely insane to me, I kept asking myself over and over why me? Winning this amazing contest put me on the cover of Ironman Magazine in May of 2013 and on the Team of one of the most amazing companies I have ever encountered Bodybuilding.com. Throughout 2013 and into 14’ my employees and I concentrated all of our efforts into making my gym one of the most successful gyms in the nation (#4 in TITLE franchise system) I even started a new gym/expanded in February 2014 and then landed the cover of Muscle and Fitness in May of 2014. At this point I was like when am I going to wake up? Fast forward to October 2016 when I decided it was time to keep the wheels turning and the ball rolling, thus the quest for PARADIGM was upon me. I kept thinking to myself am I ready to handle creating my own brand, and to do it right? Not like most starter companies that just don’t have a clue of what or who they are. I was ready for this challenge, so I hit the ground running from developing the concept to teaching myself graphic design in 3 months and designing everything from our logo, t-shirts, wall decor etc. I also took it upon myself the shoot our entire branding campaign, edit the photos and build the website. Let’s just say I had a lot of pressure weighing down on me, for one I had never done any of this before and two I had never don’t any of this before lol. From finding the building in Oct 2015 to starting to develop the concept in Nov-Dec 2015, then developing my business plan and brand identity in Feb 2016, signing the lease/ starting construction in April 2016 then opening by Oct 2017. Can you say holy shit? Now let’s fast forward to the present, we are already thriving in just 6 months of being open, earning the top spots on Google and being considered a top 10 gym in Dallas on yelp. Having several articles written about us by D magazine and Dallas News, this is just the beginning! We have big plans ahead and can wait to give Dallas what it truly deserves, surreal to say the least. All of this and more wouldn’t have been possible without the love and support of my family, friends and employees. So much of my success is because of these people, yes I have worked hard, kept humble and believed it could happen but without them I’m just another person with a dream.

From being a short fat kid that was picked on to becoming and international cover model and spokesmodel. It was all a dream, I used to read Muscle and Fitness magazine… and now its another’s dream. I can only hope I can inspire and influence kids and just people of all ages that they can do and be whatever they want no matter the circumstance. You could be down and out on your last dollar but still you can climb that mountain to the top. This is true in anything that you do from fitness to business to life, just believing that its possible is the first step.

So sounds like there were definitely a lot of twists and turns, but looking back do you feel it was a relatively smooth road?
It never is a smooth road, there are always problems from construction to money. That’s why the strong (mentally) survive. From over flowing toilets and flooding the entire gym to pipes bursting in the wall to disturbing other tenants to improper installation of signs and flooring to reconfiguring the HVAC plan in the drop of a hat by using Google and just running around to different businesses to see how theirs laid out. Let’s see also all of the equipment not fitting, and the hardest part….managing and motivating employees.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I feel like it is and or can be. Make sense? What I am trying to say is that you have to make it a good place, especially when it comes to a gym. The gym business is a hard business and its hard to get people to want to workout let alone try a new place. Dallas as a whole needs to become more a health conscious society and put health/fitness before drinking and gluttony. If someone is just starting out? Good luck, it is a tough business.

Pricing:

• General Gym Access: Platinum Membership $99 a month
• General Gym Access, Infrared Sauna, Body Scans, Classes: $149 a month
• Classes: $30 Per class (we have class packages that lower the price)
• Infrared Sauna Sessions: $25 per session (we have session packages that lower the price)
• Full Body Analysis: $75

Contact Info:

• Address: 1605 Greenville Ave, Dallas, TX 75206
• Website: www.paradigmgyms.com
• Phone: 469-619-1159
• Email: info@paradigmgyms.com
• Instagram: @paradigmgyms
• Facebook: PARADIGM Gym
• Twitter: @paradigmgyms
• Yelp: PARADIGM Gym
• Other: Google+ PARADIGM Gym