Meet Zac Walker | Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zac Walker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zac, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
We started our business with a few key motivations: the desire to work for ourselves, make a positive societal impact, and achieve financial success. My first job out of college was a wake-up call. I nearly got fired within a week, realizing that thriving in the traditional job market would be a challenge for me. I struggled with following directions, completing tasks, and didn’t have any specialized skills (financial modeling, tech literacy, hands-on abilities, etc.).
While exploring business ideas, I noticed that the yoga studio I frequented in Santa Barbara often had waitlisted classes. A mentor pointed out that where there are lines and waitlists, there’s money to be made. Initially, we considered opening a yoga business in California. However, since none of us were yogis, we pivoted to HIIT-style classes and chose Newport Beach as our market, seeing it as underserved.
We observed that many studios advertised “the best workout” or “the best six-pack,” but as recent college grads who enjoyed pizza and beer, we wanted a fitness space that wasn’t just about achieving the perfect body. We envisioned a studio centered around fun, energy, and community, where fitness was enjoyable and not a chore. We believed that being surrounded by great people would make showing up for workouts easier, and once people were there, the fitness part would follow naturally.
When we started, 73% of American adults were overweight, and over 40% were obese. We aimed to address this by making fitness something people want to do rather than feel obligated to do. We hoped this approach would make a small dent in the obesity rates. Last year, the federal government spent $1.5 trillion on healthcare, with overweight or obese individuals incurring about $8,000 more in annual healthcare costs. This disparity is unfair and needs addressing. While we didn’t aim to solve the entire health crisis, we believed starting something impactful in our community was a great first step.
In summary, our thought process behind starting CAZ Training Club was driven by a desire for independence, a passion for making a positive impact, and a recognition of a market opportunity to create a fun, community-oriented fitness experience that encourages people to enjoy staying active.

**How does your biz help the community?**

Our business is super cool because people actually want to be here. Unlike the mundane stuff you have to do (think DMV visits or buying laundry detergent), coming to our classes is a choice people make because they WANT to do it.
What I love most is that we get to be the highlight of someone’s day. We provide that one hour where you can hit pause on the chaos of work, school, or parenting, and just focus on you. Our classes are basically a “happy hour” without the hangover – you leave feeling amazing, full of endorphins, and surrounded by epic people.
Seeing someone walk in stressed and still in work mode, then come out sweaty, relaxed, and high-fiving their neighbor with a big smile is the best feeling. We create a positive, supportive environment where people can unplug from their daily grind and reconnect with themselves and our community.
By making fitness fun and engaging, we’re not just helping you get healthier; we’re building a community where you feel good, both physically and mentally. Our goal is to make a positive impact on everyone who walks through our doors, helping them leave happier and more energized.
**How do you think about risk? What role has risk-taking played in your career?**

Risk is all about finding ways to mitigate it. There’s risk in everything we do, and countless things can go wrong. But you have to trust that things generally work out. Think about getting in your car: there’s always a chance someone could run a red light, but we still drive because we need to get places. Using the car analogy, there are many ways to protect yourself: regular maintenance, avoiding distractions, checking your blind spot, and having insurance.
Starting a business is similar. You can’t avoid risk; starting a company is a huge gamble. But by anticipating what can (and will) go wrong, you can mitigate those risks. It’s about identifying the worst-case scenario and working backward to prevent it. We launched CAZ four months before COVID hit and didn’t see the pandemic coming. But when it did, we adapted. We found a recycled football field, got permission from our landlord to use space in our parking structure, and pivoted to outdoor classes until it was safe to return indoors.
We recently started a sauna and cold plunge business within one of our studios. The risk was losing our investment and damaging our brand with a bad customer experience. To mitigate this, we started with one room to test it out before expanding. We opened bookings before the room was ready to gauge demand and sold memberships before finalizing the build-out to limit our exposure to potential losses.
Things will go wrong, and you will fail. But how you respond to these challenges defines your ability to serve your team and customers. It’s about being flexible, proactive, and resilient in the face of obstacles.
**What is the most important factor behind the success of your brand?**

The most important factor behind the success of our brand is the people. Both the team we work with and the customers who walk through our doors make CAZ what it is. We are incredibly fortunate to have the best team in the industry. Our instructors are talented and full of life and energy. Great people create a great culture, and that culture is contagious. Our team is genuinely passionate about making fitness fun, connecting with our customers, getting to know them, and providing an elite experience because they believe our community deserves it. You can’t teach people to be great humans, and we’ve been lucky to work with phenomenal individuals.
The other key to our success is our customers. We don’t get to choose who comes into our studio, but we are blessed with clients who are genuinely cool people that you just want to be around. Having good customers attracts other good customers, creating a self-fulfilling cycle. We like to call our customers “culture warriors” because they buy into the idea that being surrounded by a group of epic people who celebrate and lift you up is cool. These culture warriors spread that vibe to all the new people joining the CAZ Crew, making it an incredibly welcoming environment.

**How to know whether to give up or keep going?**

This is a tough question because there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. There have been many times when stopping would have made sense. Before we started CAZ, there was a squatter in our current building. It took a full year to get him out, delaying our opening. COVID hit four months after we opened, forcing us to close for three months and run classes on a parking structure roof. In 2021, a lease for our expansion fell through, leaving us with nowhere for our cycling business, which we had to close for six months. When we reopened, we lost most of our customers and we bled money for an entire year. This year, we lost a large portion of our team due to life events like pregnancies, moves, and career changes.
There will always be reasons to stop, and they might be valid. As an entrepreneur, it’s your job to determine if you can reinvent your business to keep it feasible. If you exhaust every possible option to reinvent and salvage your business and still can’t see a path forward, then it might be time to shift your focus.
Integrity plays a massive role in the ability to keep going. When you start a business, you make many commitments: to repay loans, to fulfill promises to your employees, and to be there for your customers. Unfavorable circumstances don’t relieve you of those commitments. My partner and I believe we have a duty to honor our commitments to everyone who has put their faith in us—whether through investments, career choices, or time. We need to ensure that belief in us is fulfilled.
**Work-life balance? How has it changed?**

My work-life balance has evolved a lot since we started CAZ. Initially, I believed in the mantra that you own your business and it doesn’t own you. But when we opened, that belief went out the window. My partners and I worked seven days a week, often 15+ hours a day. When the pandemic hit, we crashed, sleeping 12+ hours a night for the first two weeks. It was a wake-up call that we were burning ourselves out by being too involved in the day-to-day operations and not enough in the strategic oversight of the business.
Now, nearly five years in, I’ve found a better balance. I’m still involved in the day-to-day operations, but if I go on vacation for a week or two, we have an amazing team that can run the show without me (often with better results than my own). Things ebb and flow, and the business needs you more at times than at others. It’s my job to really be there when it needs me and to get out of the way when it doesn’t. My priorities have shifted; I want to be known for being a good husband, son, brother, and friend much more than for owning a gym.
A big part of achieving this balance has been my incredible wife. She’s always there to support me, whether it’s understanding when I have to work long hours, coming to the studios with me, or picking me up after a long day. Her support has been invaluable and has made it possible for me to focus on both our personal life and the business. This shift has allowed me to focus on what truly matters while ensuring the business thrives with the support of a great team.

My work-life balance has evolved a lot since we started CAZ. Initially, I believed in the mantra that you own your business and it doesn’t own you. But when we opened, that belief went out the window. My partners and I worked seven days a week, often 15+ hours a day. When the pandemic hit, we crashed, sleeping 12+ hours a night for the first two weeks. It was a wake-up call that we were burning ourselves out by being too involved in the day-to-day operations and not enough in the strategic oversight of the business.
Now, nearly five years in, I’ve found a better balance. I’m still involved in the day-to-day operations, but if I go on vacation for a week or two, we have an amazing team that can run the show without me. Things eb and flow and the business needs you more at times than at others. It is my job to really be there when it needs me and to get out of the way when it doesn’t. My priorities have shifted; I want to be known for being a good husband, son, brother, and friend much more than for owning a gym.
A big part of achieving this balance has been my incredible wife. She’s always there to support me, whether it’s understanding when I have to work long hours, coming to the studios with me, or picking me up after a long day. Her support has been invaluable and has made it possible for me to focus on both our personal life and the business. This shift has allowed me to focus on what truly matters while ensuring the business thrives with the support of a great team.
**What makes you happy?**

At work, what makes me happy is seeing a bunch of great people come together daily, lifting each other up by pouring energy and positivity into a room that everyone benefits and grows from. And, of course, cash flow helps 😉 I’m a huge believer in win-win-win scenarios. When people come into our business, they benefit both physically and mentally from the community that forms. When that happens, more people tell their friends to join, our community expands, our impact spreads, and our team has opportunities to step up and grow. If all that happens, we get to make enough money to do the things in life that make us happy.
Outside of CAZ, what makes me happy is being with the people I love while doing awesome stuff. Whether it’s seeing new places, trying new foods, or cooking a big dinner at home, if I’m with the right people, I’m happy. The things that bring me the most happiness are always about the people I’m with. My wife, my family, my friends, the amazing team I work with, and the incredible community that comes into CAZ every day. I find joy in life when I’m surrounded by good people.

What should our readers know about your business?
We started our business with a few key motivations: the desire to work for ourselves, make a positive societal impact, and achieve financial success. My first job out of college was a wake-up call. I nearly got fired within a week, realizing that thriving in the traditional job market would be a challenge for me. I struggled with following directions, completing tasks, and didn’t have any specialized skills (financial modeling, tech literacy, hands-on abilities, etc.).
While exploring business ideas, I noticed that the yoga studio I frequented in Santa Barbara often had waitlisted classes. A mentor pointed out that where there are lines and waitlists, there’s money to be made. Initially, we considered opening a yoga business in California. However, since none of us were yogis, we pivoted to HIIT-style classes and chose Newport Beach as our market, seeing it as underserved.
We observed that many studios advertised “the best workout” or “the best six-pack,” but as recent college grads who enjoyed pizza and beer, we wanted a fitness space that wasn’t just about achieving the perfect body. We envisioned a studio centered around fun, energy, and community, where fitness was enjoyable and not a chore. We believed that being surrounded by great people would make showing up for workouts easier, and once people were there, the fitness part would follow naturally.
When we started, 73% of American adults were overweight, and over 40% were obese. We aimed to address this by making fitness something people want to do rather than feel obligated to do. We hoped this approach would make a small dent in the obesity rates. Last year, the federal government spent $1.5 trillion on healthcare, with overweight or obese individuals incurring about $8,000 more in annual healthcare costs. This disparity is unfair and needs addressing. While we didn’t aim to solve the entire health crisis, we believed starting something impactful in our community was a great first step.
In summary, our thought process behind starting CAZ Training Club was driven by a desire for independence, a passion for making a positive impact, and a recognition of a market opportunity to create a fun, community-oriented fitness experience that encourages people to enjoy staying active.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have so many people to thank. My wife being the most important! My family has believed in my dreams and encouraged me, My mentors Paul Orfalea, Lance Helfert, and Isaiah Henry have always pushed me to dream bigger. My employees, especially the early ones for believing in us and taking a chance on us. There isn’t enough space in this article to list all of the tremendous people who have made incredible impacts on my life and entrepreneurial journey.

Website: https://caztrainingclub.com

Instagram: caztrainingclub

Image Credits
Nadim Zoghbi