At a glance: Sam Laing co-owns CrossFit Movida with two business partners. When COVID hit, the gym lost around half its revenue and dropped a lot of members — and Sam came close to pulling the pin. Roughly two and a half years into trading, after joining More Gym Members (LeadsNow’s earlier gym-marketing brand), the business signed $34,000 in new sales in a single month, doubled its members and doubled its revenue — its biggest month since opening. All figures on this page come straight from the filmed interview, as told on camera.
The numbers, as stated in the filmed interview
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| New sales in the past month | $34,000 |
| Members | Doubled |
| Revenue | Doubled |
| Best month | Biggest month since the business opened (about two and a half years) |
| Starting point when COVID hit | Around half of revenue lost, a lot of members dropped |
Watch Sam tell it himself
A note on the era: this campaign was delivered under More Gym Members, LeadsNow’s earlier gym-marketing brand, and the video was filmed in 2020. It predates the AI sales agents LeadsNow runs today — what you see here is the team’s earlier high-ticket fitness work: lead-generation campaigns, sales coaching and accountability, exactly as described on camera.
Where CrossFit Movida was when COVID hit
CrossFit Movida was about two and a half years into trading at the time of the filmed interview. Sam runs the gym with his two business partners — his fiancée and his future father-in-law — and like any young business it had been up and down. Then COVID delivered what Sam calls a kick in the guts: the gym lost around half its revenue and dropped a lot of members, with uncertainty hanging over the business and work alike.
The toll was personal, not just financial.
“I found myself, like, in a bit of a spiral and… in the trenches, so to speak, for two weeks… I sort of felt lost. I almost wanted to just pull the pin.”
— Sam Laing, CrossFit Movida
By his own account, Sam couldn’t bring himself to push forward, motivate himself or program for clients. For those first two weeks, the drive simply wasn’t there.
The turning point
The way back in was deliberately small: a low-cost remote 21-day challenge program from More Gym Members. Sam figured he had nothing to lose, threw it at the program — and the first couple of sales did something the numbers alone don’t capture.
“Made a couple of sales, and I think that those couple of sales, man, for me was just confidence… I was apprehensive to ask for money. But it just gave me that little bit of a confidence boost, you know, just what I needed to say, all right, you still got this.”
— Sam Laing, CrossFit Movida
That confidence spilled over into the full program. Sam’s business partners were sceptical about mentors, so he backed the decision himself — paying the first deposit out of his own pocket because, as he puts it, he just had a feeling. It kicked off from there.
What actually changed: reframing
Ask Sam what the game-changer was and he doesn’t point to a piece of software or a secret ad. He points to reframing — first around commitments, then around selling itself.
On commitments: instead of seeing a membership term as a “ghastly contract” (something he was very much against), he reframed it as the honest answer to a client’s goal — you want to achieve this in a set amount of time, this is how long it takes, this is the program. It took a couple of goes to see it, but it worked.
On selling:
“Instead of trying to be this slimebag, you know, sleazy seller, it’s like just reframing to having a conversation, finding out what they want, and just prescribing them, you know, a solution to the problem.”
— Sam Laing, CrossFit Movida
The final piece was being okay with hearing no. In Sam’s words, he can’t help everyone — and the ones he can help, he was meant to help. The result: he no longer second-guesses anything he says or prescribes.
The results
The month before the interview was filmed, CrossFit Movida signed $34,000 in new sales — stated at the top of the filmed interview and confirmed by Sam on camera. Asked where the business sat compared with the COVID low point, his answer was blunt:
“Doubled in members, doubled in revenue. Biggest month we’ve ever had since the business opened. So we’re in the strongest position in two and a half years, post-COVID.”
— Sam Laing, CrossFit Movida
For a gym that had lost half its revenue when COVID hit, that’s a full reversal — from nearly pulling the pin to the strongest position in the business’s history. Sam’s plan for the future, as stated on camera: keep pumping it. Don’t stop.
Sam’s advice to other gym owners
What Sam says he liked most is the accountability running both ways — in his words, it’s not the standard length-of-term, retainer arrangement: if you don’t perform, then I don’t perform, and then it doesn’t work for both.
“I’d just say, like, give it a crack, man. You got nothing to lose… I was sort of always a bit like, you know, you can’t grow that fast, but you actually can. You actually can.”
— Sam Laing, CrossFit Movida
Frequently asked questions
Are these results typical?
No — and anyone who promises a specific result is being loose with the truth. CrossFit Movida had an owner willing to get on the phone, do the work and change how he sold. What the story shows is that fundamentals compound: a genuine offer, real conversations and disciplined follow-up. Speed matters more than most gym owners realise — the Lead Response Management Study found the odds of qualifying a lead drop 21 times when response time stretches from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. That’s why fast, consistent follow-up sits at the heart of every lead-generation program worth running.
How bad were things before the turnaround?
As Sam states on camera: when COVID hit, the gym lost around half its revenue and dropped a lot of members. Personally, he describes spending two weeks “in the trenches”, feeling lost and close to pulling the pin on the business altogether. The $34,000 month and the doubling of members and revenue came after that low point — which is what makes this story worth filming.
What did the program actually involve?
As described in the filmed interview: Sam started with a low-cost remote 21-day challenge, made his first sales, then moved into the full More Gym Members program — where the biggest shifts were reframing membership commitments around client goals and reframing sales as prescribing solutions rather than pushing. It was marketing and sales-coaching work, not AI; LeadsNow’s AI sales agents came later.
Does LeadsNow still work with gyms and fitness businesses?
Yes. This campaign ran in 2020 under LeadsNow’s earlier gym-marketing brand, More Gym Members, before today’s AI sales agents existed. The same team now works with high-ticket coaching and fitness businesses across Australia under LeadsNow.
Want to see how other clients have gone? See all client stories.