I Went From ZERO to Opening my Own Gym with 250 Clients (and i'm about to open a second one)
By Sean McGarrity · 26 May 2026
The Phil Giffney Interview: Why a gym owner with 250 clients only hires from one place
Quick set-up before we get into it.
Phil Giffney is an Elite graduate. He opened his own gym in Blackrock 7 years ago. Started with nothing.
Then he built that gym to Over 250 clients and a team of 8.
And he's about to open a second location in Glenageary — a 6,000 sq ft place.
The last 4 coaches Phil hired are all Elite graduates.
Not by accident. By choice.
I sat down with him to find out why.
What follows is the interview, mostly word for word, with three things he said that I want you to pay close attention to.
Here we go.
SEAN: Phil — talk to me about how you ended up in the industry in the first place.
PHIL: I did a broad business course because I wanted to do marketing when I left college.
But there just weren't any jobs back then.
The only thing available were marketing internships.
I didn't want to do that.
So… that left only one job available. Sales.
In lots of different industries. Banking. Things I didn't really want to get involved in.
Except for one role.
Which was in a gym in town.
So I started working there doing sales in a gym and that was me getting into the industry — and I loved it.
The reason I loved it was I liked sales. I was good at that.
But as well as that, I liked the industry.
I liked being part of something that has a deeper meaning behind it. Helping people. Seeing people develop and achieve their goals.
SEAN: So how did you end up on the Elite course?
PHIL: When it came to the time I left Energie I kind of had a decision to make.
Whether I wanted to be a personal trainer.
Or continue in a similar role in a sales or management-based role within the industry.
But I knew I wanted to own my own business.
And so rather than just going straight into sales, I decided to learn from the best and become a personal trainer first.
So I had a really deep understanding of what it is I'm selling. And what it is I'm going to do to help people in the business.
That's why I contacted you.
You see, I knew a lot of personal trainers.
Loads of people are personal trainers these days but they're doing bugger all with the qualification.
I didn't want to be another one of those statistics.
But two guys that I knew had been through your course and uniquely they were doing really well.
They were employed.
They were making money.
And not just the odd session here and there.
They were getting regular work — which was rare.
So I asked them where they qualified. They said Elite.
That was an obvious choice.
I went into Elite and I can say sincerely…
I learned everything I needed to know about training, nutrition, sales and marketing to be able to leave there and open my own business.
SEAN: And five years on?
PHIL: We've gone from no clients to over 250 clients.
We're opening up our second location in Glenageary — huge place, big 6,000 square foot spot, so it's going really well.
Team of 8 out here between coaches and our back-end staff.
And we've just employed two of our — what are now head coaches for Glenageary, our second location.
And they're all Elite graduates as well.
The last 4 coaches that we've hired are all Elite graduates.
SEAN: Why?
Point #1 — Elite grads can perform from day one
PHIL: It's very simple.
You're looking for someone that has the necessary skills to be able to do what they need to do on the gym floor in terms of:
- Coaching people
- Having the right skill set behind them from day one
- So they can walk into a role and perform at a high level straight away
And that has been the case with every Elite graduate that we've taken on.
SEAN: That's unreal. Okay — well why wouldn't somebody just learn this in college doing sports science?
Point #2 — In head-to-head interviews, it's not even close
PHIL: Well, we do practical-based interviews here.
It's broken down into 5 steps.
Each step within that tests critical skills that a coach will need on the gym floor to be able to perform.
So we're testing them as part of a practical interview process. We've done this as part of groups — generally about 8 in a group — but we've done interviews with 30 in total.
And within a group of 8 in our last round, we had 2 Elite graduates and 6 others with degrees or from other courses.
The two Elite guys — and this isn't just a once-off occasion, this has happened twice in total because we've hired four —
…the two Elite guys stand out head and shoulders above everyone else.
Because they walk in, they're able to perform in all of those 5 key areas.
They know what they're doing.
They're able to adapt the training to suit different levels of clients — the type of people we get in.
And they're ready to start the role straight away.
SEAN: And if you had to put your finger on it… is there something you could maybe hang it on that we do that's different?
Point #3 — You learn it. Then you do it. Same day.
PHIL: Yeah, I'd say so.
It's the practical-based element you have to it.
From talking to the guys we've taken on — particularly Craig, who's one of the head coaches for ParkPoint —
You learn something in your classroom environment.
And then you immediately implement it in your practical environment on the gym floor.
So they're learning and then putting it into action straight away.
You know yourself — you learn from doing these things.
You kind of forget what you're learning in a theoretical-based environment. Particularly for a personal training role, which is mostly practical.
What way did Craig put it?
Craig said:
"They just beat it into you until you become a personal trainer."
I think that kind of sums it up.
So there you have it.
Not me telling you Elite is different.
A gym owner.
With 250 paying clients.
A team of 8.
And a second location opening.
Telling you who he's willing to bet his business on.
And it's the same people, every time.
If you're tired of the idea of being another "qualified" personal trainer with a cert and no clients…
If you want to walk onto a gym floor on day one and actually know what you're doing…
Then have a look at the course.
It's free to download the details. Full-time options, part-time options, what's covered, and how to apply for the upcoming intake.
You can make your own mind up from there.
Talk soon,
Sean "Client First" McGarrity
P.S. Phil started exactly where you are right now. A guy with a decision to make. 7 years later — 250 clients and opening a second gym. The course didn't make him work hard. He did that. But it gave him the skills to make the hard work actually pay off.
