Bryan Myers, President & CEO, [solidcore]

Bryan Myers
Bryan is the President & Chief Executive Officer for [solidcore] boutique fitness and a trained [solidcore] Coach. In his role as CEO, Bryan is responsible for setting and executing strategy focused on growth and building a strong, inclusive, and nationwide community of clients and employees.

Prior to joining the [solidcore] team as COO in 2018, Bryan was a member of the leadership team of sweetgreen, the national leader in the healthy fast casual category. He joined sweetgreen in 2014 as Director of Finance and, over the course of 4 years, wore many hats including his final role as VP of Development, helping the company grow from a regional chain of 22 restaurants to 90 locations nationally. Bryan began his career as a consultant for The Boston Consulting Group, providing strategic advice to Fortune 500 companies on topics of growth, organizational design, and operational transformation.

When Bryan isn’t sweating it out on [sweatlana], you can find him immersed in the performing arts and attending shows at the many, amazing performance venues in the DC area. Bryan is also passionate about finding ways to give back to the community and currently serves on the Board of the Ridley Scholars Foundation, an organization that provides financial and mentorship support to high-achieving African-American students.

In 2020, Bryan was recognized by the Washington Business Journal as a Minority Business Leader honoree.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs.You should know Howard by I Hardney.
Let's be Brian Myers. He isthe president and CEO for solid Core,
based on only in the DMV withmany locations. Solid Core is United States
wide, with a plan in thefuture to have over two hundred and fifty
locations. Solid Core is a highintensity, low impact full body workout on

(00:22):
a Pilate's inspired reformer. Before wetalk more about Brian's company, I first
asked him to talk a little bitabout himself, where he's from, and
his origin story. I was bornin North Carolina, born to a military
dad, so we moved around abunch. Lived in North Carolina, South
Carolina, Florida, spent six yearsof my childhood living in Okay now Japan,

(00:46):
and then moved back to the NorthernVirginia region for high school. I
loves my childhood. I was superactive. I was actually really entrepreneurial,
always trying to start a business ofsome sort. I was selling fruit,
selling candy, try to start ababy sitting agency at one point. And

(01:07):
so naturally, when I thought aboutwhat I wanted to be when I grew
up, it led me down thepath of going to school for business,
and so I went to the Universityof Virginia, was in the undergraduate business
school, and then post college decidedthat I would move to DC to start
my career. You know, Brian, well, like you, I moved
around a lot because of my businessin radio and television sports. And I
have one daughter and she's always beenpretty jammed up about how much we've moved.

(01:30):
And it's not fun to move becauseI moved as a kid too like
you did, and I get it. But the one thing I'd like you
to impart on her audience, ifyou could, is about resiliency and change,
because that's life, right, andthen when you start running a company,
that happens every day. So Iimagine all your life experiences, of
all the moving ups and down thatyou had you put into adulthood and also

(01:53):
being a leader, that must havebeen pretty helpful to you. I imagine
absolutely one thing that I truly believed, and that the things, the circumstances
that we face in life, wecan look at them and face them as
these are things that have held meback or have been stumbling blocks, or
we can look at them as theseare the things that have given me to

(02:15):
superpowers that I now uniquely have,and being in a military family that moved
around a lot, that went througha lot of change, I view that
as a superpower. It means thatI meet new people very easily. It
means that I connect with people veryeasily. I maintain connections even over long
distances. To your point around resiliency, that you're just navigating a lot of

(02:38):
dynamics when you're kind of in thatenvironment, and all of those things I
view as being superpowers that have helpedme not only in the role that I
sit in, but frankly have helpedme get to where I am as quickly
as I did. Well. It'srefreshing that you feel that way, because
I think all of us would liketo feel that way. That there's an
opportunity when some begins happens, whenthere's change, and it might not be

(03:01):
welcomed so quickly in those kind ofcircumstances. So I appreciate sharing that.
I do want to give some contextto our listeners and also myself as we
get to know you a little bit, Brian, about what you did before
Solid Core. Now I know we'vebeen with a company for six years.
He started out as COEO, andnow you're president and CEO, and I
want you to tell about that storytoo, because I think that's fascinating about

(03:21):
joining company, looking at its dynamicsand then taking the big gram poopad jobs.
We'll talk about that because you overseetwo thousand staff, which is incredible
on your team at solid Core.But what are all the things that you
did when you came out of UVA, what you were into. I saw
your resume, it's pretty impressive,But why don't you tell everybody what you
did? So to be completely honest, I didn't know what I wanted to

(03:43):
be when I grew up. Iwas the first generation college student. Neither
of my parents went to college,and so I didn't have a ton of
models for what someone did kind ofwith a post undergrad degree, and so
I ultimately decided that I wanted togo into management consulting, and I went.
I worked for a company called theBoston Consulting Group, and I am

(04:04):
so incredibly grateful for that opportunity becauseit exposed me to all different functional areas
of business, all different types ofindustries. And I was at that company
for almost five years, working withFortune five hundred, Fortune hundred some of
the biggest names in their respective industries, all household names that people would know,

(04:25):
and that was an incredible, incredibletraining ground, but I still felt
that entrepreneurial hitch right. The desireto start the babysitting agency self fruit sell
Candy sort of came roaring back inmy mid twenties, and I decided that
I was going to leave consulting andgo do something that was more entrepreneurial,
and I ultimately landed at sweet Green, which at the time people here in

(04:49):
the DMV region would have known,but was actually not the nationwide brand that
it has become today. And Iwas fortunate enough to join the leadership team
of sweet Green and be a partof that growth story as we grew that
concept from roughly twenty units, againprimarily here in the DC metro area,
to almost one hundred units all overthe country, including opening New York and

(05:13):
Chicago and LA and the Bay Area. And what I learned through that was
that where I really found my passionwas in helping entrepreneur entrepreneurs excuse me,
build amazing companies and amazing brands.And then I got introduced to the founder
of solid Core and that's how Ilanded where I am today. All right,

(05:35):
well, thank you for sharing allthat. You know, when you
started talking about Sweet Green, andI don't mean to make any commercial,
but I remember when COVID was hittingand there was some building going on of
some new places and restaurants, andI remember that there was a Sweet Green
and another salid place going up,and I remember turning to my wife,
going a salad place. Are youtelling me that there's a place that is

(05:59):
all we're going to do? Sopeople aren't going to get that. And
boy, you worked for one ofthe coolest, fastest growing, great companies.
I'm glad you had the experience.But it's amazing when you know somebody
has an idea and you know,we'll talk about this about solid core too,
and you joining the company and theirvision about what it is. And
because you know, with your industry, there's a lot of places that you

(06:20):
can work out at. You know, there's a lot of things to do
out there, and yet somebody comesup with just a hinge of a different
twist, and you know, youdon't know if it's going to work or
not. And that's what I'd lovetalking about in this series of people like
you is those risk takers and takingchances, and maybe one door is closed,
but the other opens up somebody says, no, you're not talking to

(06:41):
the right person. We'll go overhere. So those are all great lessons
to learn in stories to tell.But I do want to talk about solid
Core now, and I really knowwhy they were interested in you as CEO,
But why were you interested in solidCore when you join them just about
six years ago. The amazing partof my story, tonis is that I

(07:02):
actually found solid Core almost ten yearsago. And I've worn a number of
different hats, as you mentioned inCEO been COO, but the first hat
that I ever wore at Solid Corewas client. And I found solid Core
through a friend of mine who hadstarted teaching at solid Core and was like,

(07:23):
you have to come try this amazingworkout. It is unlike anything I've
ever done and is going to changethe way that you view strength training.
And I was like, Okay,this guy is kind of like overhyping this
workout, but I'll go try it. And I went and I tried it,
and the rest is history. Ibecame a loyal, dedicated solid Core
client and so then years later Iwas working at Sweekering and got introduced to

(07:47):
Anne who was the founder of solidCore, and she mentioned that she wanted
to grow and expand solid Core ina similar way that we had grown and
expand expanded Sweecering, and Dennis,it was just amazing sort of match made
and having a product that I wasreally passionate about combined with a need for
a set of skills and experiences thatI had gotten while I was actually treating

(08:11):
in my consulting days. And soI ultimately joined as her CEO, as
her right hand and really proud ofthe work that we did together over a
number of years, and then abouttwo and a half years ago, became
her successor as she sort of exitedthe business from a leadership perspective and I
became the CEO. Right. It'sa great story. You know, There's

(08:35):
one word that sticks out that Ihear from a lot of leaders and also
share a personal story about it myself, and that's word passion. And I
can tell already talking to you,meeting you for the short time we've gotten
to know each other, that youare passionate about what you do and every
leader really needs that. And thereason why is because there are so many
hurdles when you run a company orwhen you're management that if you're not passionate

(08:56):
about what you do, folks,it is going to sound you like a
job and nobody wants that. Andenough of us has been there before,
you know. With my industry,Brian, I've been on air for many,
many years, and it's usually beensports in some shape or form,
whether it's television, talk, playby play. I've done it all,
and I've had a lot of fundoing it at all. But i just
love sports and I'm passionate about sports. And every boss so that has ever

(09:20):
hired me, after I've gotten toknow them, usually the conversation comes together
and says, do you know whyI hired you? And after a while
I got it. It wasn't formy gifts that I had. It was
because of my passion for what Idid and how much I love sports.
And I love your story too,because I can tell that your passion and
I'm sure that resonated with analog thatyou were a client first and then you

(09:43):
wanted to join a company and yourpassion was there. So let's do this.
Let's talk about the mission statement,and then we'll talk about kind of
a thirty thousand foot view of whatsolid Core is. And then we'll get
into the real meat and potatoes andyour locations and all the cool things that
people want to be introduced into theDMV. And by the way, folks,
they're domestically all over the United States. So now just hearing the DMV

(10:03):
and Brian will tell you about allthat. But let's start with just the
premise about you know, solid Coreand the mission statement. What is that?
Yeah, at solid Core, whatwe say is that we are on
a mission to help our clients createthe strongest version of themselves inside and out.

(10:24):
I like that it's shortened to thepoint. It's perfect. Absolutely,
it is shortened to the point.And one thing that has been I think
a massive differentiator is that we've keptthat focus through all these years, through
all the distractions of COVID and digitalthis and there's never going to be in

(10:46):
person fitness again, and we havereally stayed focused on this mission of how
do we make sure that in everythingthat we are doing, we are showing
up and helping our clients create thestrongest version of themselves inside and out.
And as long as it's in ournorth Star we've continued to meet that client
need and we've continued to grow andbe successful. All right, So since
we said your company you name,a couple of times I can hear the

(11:07):
Google machine from our listeners saying,what is solid core? Well, you
know what, We've got the presidentCEO here to tell us about it.
So if you were to give athirty thousand foot view and somebody who's introduced
to solid core for the first timeever, and you had to explain that,
Brian, what is solid core?Solid core is a fifty minute full
body string training workout. It's doneon a proprietary reformer that we call Sweatlana

(11:31):
that uses resistance in order to breakyour muscles down to failure. We systematically
move through all of the major bodyparts, so upper body, center,
core, your obliques, and yourlower body, and we get them to
that second stage of muscle failure,which is that stage of muscle failure where
your muscles are shaking uncontrollably. Andit's at that failure point that your muscles

(11:52):
then build back stronger. And soevery time you walk out of a solid
core class, you are guaranteed towalk out stronger than when you walk in
All right. So, as youknow in your industry, whether it's kickboxing,
boxing, stretching, pilates, weighttraining, I could go on and
on all the different kinds of thosecycling too, right, I mean they're

(12:13):
everywhere. What you know, youtalked about differentiating, but if we get
down to it, you know there'sso many different choices about how you can
work on your body and be abetter person inside and out. Tell us
a little bit more about solid Core, about why it's a good idea and
how exactly everything works, from theactual workout to the coaches, and you
go into a place I'd like toget, you know, from soup to

(12:35):
nuts, how everything works. Yeah, So let me start with the class
itself. So it is a classbased workout. Our class sizes are relatively
small, so you think average fifteenpeople. Again, it's a fifteen minute
class and it is led by atrain solid Core coach. They are taking
you through every exercise, making surethat you are doing it with proper form

(13:00):
so that you stay safe and thatthe workout is going to be as effective
as possible. So again, everysingle person is walking out feeling like they
push their body to its limits andtherefore they're going to come back stronger than
when they walked in the door.The environment of the class is high intensity,
and so the coach is coaching veryenergetically. They're going to say your

(13:22):
name, they're going to hold youaccountable. The lights are dim and the
music is loud. It's really meantto give you that fully immersive experience so
that you can't be mentally anywhere butin that room. We always tell our
clients we spend so much of ourday focusing on other people, right how
we can best serve our kids,our spouse, our work. But for

(13:43):
the fifty minutes that you are ina solid core class, we want to
create an environment where the person thatyou are serving is the person who matters
most of you, and it shouldbe yourself, because you can't serve any
of those other people if you haven'tyet served yourself. So that's the class
environment, and then again your work, each of those muscle groups to that
second stage of muscle failure. Andwe have a rotating muscle focused calendar,

(14:05):
and so you may have a tricepfocus one day, a bicep focus the
other the next day, a chestfocus the next day, et cetera.
So as you come you are nevergoing to be overly exhausting any given muscle
group, which helps prevent injury andalso maintains a balanced body. All right,
well, let's get a little bitmore into it because a lot of
people have heard about flat Lana andalso about the class. But if you

(14:30):
were to walk into a class physicallyand you see something in front of you,
and you've got the other people onthe coach, and you know,
are they grabbing anything, are theypulling anything? Like, we really get
into it, tell people what thisis. Then we'll set everybody up with
a website so you can see photosand videos and some cool things going on.
But get a little bit more intothe weeds about what exactly this is.
Brian. Yeah, so I'll startwith the equipment. The equipment is

(14:54):
about eleven feet long. There aretwo stable non moving s services on either
end, and then there's a piecein the middle that actually moves between those
stable services. So the stable serviceswe call a platform, and then that
thing that moves in the middle wecall a carriage. The workout is based
on generally speaking, planks, squats, and lunges, and so as you

(15:18):
go through the workout, you're goingto be doing plank, squats and lunges
to work your core and your obliquesas well as your lower body. And
then there are a series of cablesthat are connected to spring based resistance that
you use for things like bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, things like that.
Just flies are going to work yourupper body. And so when you walk
in, you might see someone,as an example, standing on the platform

(15:41):
with one leg and they'll have theirother leg on the carriage behind them,
and what they'll be doing is alunge. And as they find the bottom
of that lunge on that carriage andthat platform, what's going to start to
happen is that center glute, thatglute medius is going to start to fire
up. And so you are focusingon maximizing time under tension, and so

(16:03):
we're not sort of pounding through refreelyreally fast. Everything's done super slow,
super controlled to maximize how much loadand how long we're putting that load on
the muscle. Because as you lengthenthe time that that muscle is under tension,
you get closer and closer to thatsecond stage of muscle failure. All
right, So a couple things aspeople listen to this and I do too,

(16:25):
and you know as well as Ido. When it comes to a
fitness center, any kind of specialtyclass, there are people that are all
shapes and sizes, and also thereare a lot of people that are out
of shape and they're embarrassed to goout, whether it's in public or a
class or anything. And then everybody'sgot a different skill set. You know,
how far you can stretch, andhow strong you are or not,
or you want to lose weight andall those kind of things. Can you

(16:45):
maybe address all that because I knowpeople were thinking about that, and listen,
I don't want to go to thisbecause you know it might be a
dark room, but I'm not inshape and I'm going to be embarrassed because
I can't do this and other peoplecan do it around me. Can you
address all that I can first?And first at solid Core, we always
talk about the fact that the mostimportant person who walks into the room is

(17:07):
you. There are a lot offitness classes and platforms where frankly, the
instructor or the coach is the mostimportant person. They sort of celebritize and
put that person I met, andI met those I met them yes,
exactly, and so when you walkin, everything that we do is really
geared toward making sure that you feelcomfortable and like you're going to get the

(17:30):
most out of the workout. Wehave people of all shapes and all sizes
and all fitness levels, and oneof the hallmarks of our training for our
coaches is that we teach them howto coach to a room of varying skill
and fitness levels. So, whetheryou are newer to working out or you
are a multi time marathoner, whenyou walk out of a software class,

(17:51):
you were going to feel physically.It's also because the coach is going to
provide you with modifications and amplifications thathelp meet you where you are to get
you to the next level. Additionally, our equipment is actually built with inclusivity
in mind, and so when youthink about the physical machine right again,
it's eleven feet long, so regardlessof how tall you are, you can

(18:11):
fit on the machine, and thatthere's plenty of width, so regardless of
body size, there's plenty of spacefor you. And at the end of
the day, I always tell peoplethe person who makes it through a solid
core class and says to themselves thatwas really hard, but I want to
come back. That's all you needto be a solid Core client. It's

(18:32):
all about mentality. It doesn't matterhow fit you are, what size you
are, or any of that.It's all about the mindset because the workout
is going to be a challenge,and if you stick with the challenge,
you were going to see and feelthose results. And so as long as
you were committed to sticking with thechallenge, solid corese for you. I
know there's a lot of people thatcan get discouraged when they go to a
place and maybe it's not a goodfit for them or they think it's too

(18:55):
hard, But I know there's alsoa lot of great stories. And I
know you've got two thousand on yourteam that manage all the different to solid
Cores around the nation. And onceagain, we'll give website and we'll give
locations in the DMV for everybody outthere, and how to sign up for
a class and all those kind ofcool things. But is there maybe a
story or two, Brian that sticksout of whether it's necessarily a personal experience

(19:18):
or maybe you heard from one ofyour team members by saying, you know,
we change somebody's life today and thisis why we get up. Is
there something that sticks out, maybea cool story you can share, Dennis,
This is so important because you know, as a fast growing company that
is private equity backed, a lotof people spend a lot of time focusing
on how much money someone may ormay not make from solid Core, and

(19:44):
that may be motivating to some.But what's incredible about the team and the
culture that we built at solid Coreis a thing that really motivates us are
the stories of the impact that thisworkout has on people's lives. Because again,
the mission to create the strongest versionof themselves inside and out. And
so we hear from people who talkabout the outside portion of that, right

(20:07):
which is like, Hey, Istarted doing solid Core and I lost sixty
pounds, and I know that thisis going to give me more longevity to
spend with my family, more longevityto spend with my kids, more energy
to play with my grandkids someday.But then you also hear on the inside
folks like I had a client reachout to me just several weeks ago who

(20:30):
said, you know, I discoveredsolid Core as I was finishing up my
cancer treatment and solid Core and whatI did under those blue lights of a
solid core class. That was thefirst time that I felt strong again.
That was the first time that Ifelt like myself, that I got myself

(20:51):
back again. And those types ofmessages are the fuel that keeps us going.
Those types of messages are the impetusfor the level of growth that we've
had over the years and the operationalgrowth targets that we set for ourselves as
we look ahead at the next threeto five years. All right, before
we give some information out about classesand locations and signing up and all those

(21:17):
kind of good things, the flooris yours, Brian. I just want
to give you one last chance forour listeners, maybe a takeaway or two
that you want them to leave withwhen it comes to Soli Corp. What
would that be? You know,my biggest takeaway for listeners is find the
thing, and I do hope it'ssolid core, But even if it's not,
find the thing that gets you excitedand motivated to stay connected to your

(21:44):
health and wellness journey coming out ofthe pandemic. If there's one benefit of
going through that experience, it's Ithink the national recognition that we don't often
pour into ourselves as much as weshould, and your health is the thing
that unlocks everything else. With yourhealth, you have time and energy for

(22:07):
work, you have time and energyfor kids, you have time and energy
for significant others, you have timeand energy for travel. And so find
that thing. I recently heard ofsat that you know, roughly seventy five
percent of adults in this country don'tget the recommended about a movement in a
week. So if you are oneof those that sits in that seventy five
percent, that's okay. The timeto start is today, all right,

(22:32):
So on the website that in justa second, Brian's going to give the
URL for that, so you'd beable to say if you're already having Google
it, but with new clients,locations, members and shop and of course
a book buying careers is also onthere. Give us the website and then
just maybe you know the locations,how easy it is to kind of sign
up or try something out. Justgive everybody the loadown on that if you

(22:56):
could. Brian, absolutely check usout out at www dot solid core dot
co. That's so l I DCRIdot co. You'll find all sorts of
information about our workout where we are. And like you said, our career
page as well. We have overone hundred and ten locations across twenty seven

(23:18):
states and the district. So whereveryou may be hearing this or wherever you
may be going or coming from,we likely have a solid core in your
neck of the woods, so definitelycheck it out. And it's resolution season,
and because it's a resolution season,we have a bunch of new client
offers, and so our new clientspecial is a two week unlimited at a

(23:40):
heavily discounted price. It's an opportunityfor you to come in and check us
out as many times as you wantto over the course of two weeks and
start to build a new habit asyou enter twenty twenty four. And lastly,
because you alluded to it, weare a rapidly growing company. We
have all types of roles, frompart time coaches in our studios all the
way to roles at our hqu herein the DC metro area. So please,

(24:03):
if you're looking for an amazing placeto work, please check out our
careers page. And before we letyou go, let's tell people about the
locations and the DMV and then thatway they can go from there. Yeah.
Absolutely, so we have almost twentylocations in the DMV, so I
certainly won't name them all, butwe have locations in the district proper and
a few sort of key neighborhoods.We have some in the fourteenth Street Corridor,

(24:27):
Navy Yard, Weston Adams, Morgan, we have more, and then
we have a number of locations inArlington, Virginia, out in the Burgs
as far out as Loudon County aswell. And then we also have locations
in Bethesda in Annapolis, so definitelycheck us out. We are all over
the DMV our home market. Sothe point is, folks, no excuses,

(24:49):
they're everywhere for Pete's sake. Yeah, well absolutely, Ran. I
can't tell you how much I appreciateyour valuable time because I know you're busy,
you know, managing something the DMVis a big deal, but with
over two thousand team members and havingplaces all across the United States, I
know it's a very busy job.Continue success. You know, we talked
about passion a little bit earlier.You certainly have that, and your resume

(25:12):
speaks for itself, and it seemslike you're happy and you're fulfilled at solid
Core, which is a real bigdeal when you're a CEO and you're miserable,
folks, money is not everything.I can guarantee you that. And
when we talk to our leaders outthere, their passion, their drive to
get better at whatever they do isa really big deal out there, because,

(25:32):
especially after going through COVID, happinessis everything. It's all it's chocked
up to be. And Brian,you're certainly that so continue success if we
give our best to everybody at SolidCore. Let's stay in touch and thank
you so much for joining us onCEOs. You should know we really appreciate
it absolutely, Thank you so much. Senna's been a for sure. Our
community partner, M and T Banksupports CEOs, you should know. Is

(25:53):
part of their ongoing commitment to buildingstrong communities, and that starts by backing
that businesses within them. As aBank for communities, M and T believes
in dedicating time, talent and resourcesto help local businesses thrive because when businesses
succeed, our communities succeed