By Pepper Fisher

SEQUIM – Makayla Payne and Evan Hurn were both staff members at Anytime Fitness in Sequim when, just over a year ago, the owners made them the life-changing offer to take over the ownership of the business.

In just one year, under the new business partner’s direction, the gym’s membership has grown by over 300. And, earlier this month, at the company’s annual conference in Colorado Springs, Anytime Fitness in Sequim was awarded the Most Improved Franchise trophy. That’s out of more than 2500 franchises in North America.

Here’s co-owner Evan Hurn.

“We had understood that we were nominated so, it was a little bit nerve-racking, you know, going into the awards show. It, over all, went fine. As soon as they called our name, honestly, the nerves went away for me. And that was my first time giving a speech to anybody since college, and never at that level. Yeah, there was over 3,000 people, executives from multiple companies. It was a pretty humbling experience, to say the least, and yeah, just an awesome experience.”

So how’d they do it? New signs? A new paint job? All new equipment? None of the above. Hurn says the biggest impact has come from the staff he and Makayla Payne brought on since taking over.

“You know, there was no real silver bullet for it. It was just a lot of lead bullets that, day by day, we made small tweaks here and there. We knew that the club had a lot of potential before taking over. A lot of it, I mean, it was just operational. You know, adding in a few more coaches, who have just completely changed it. With Patrick McCrorie, was our first hire, Adrienne Haggerty, and now Eric Hermosada and Lisa Cullen. And they have really helped change the entire environment so, we’ve been able to make a lot more of an impact here in the community we grew up in.”

Anytime Fitness in Sequim is located at 10131 Old Olympic Highway in the little mall at Sequim Dungeness Way.

Call (360) 683-4110 for more information.

BTW, we learned about this story from our new McCrorie Carpet One studio text feature. Text us directly at 360-457-1450.

(Photo provided by Evan Hurn)