Lacey Szekely runs Swet, and she made the smartest move a new gym owner can make: she started marketing five months before the doors opened. By her own words, “I found Riley 5 months ago, before we even opened, and I’m so glad we did.” That single decision is the difference between launching with members already paying and launching with rent due and an empty studio.
The situation
The most financially dangerous moment in a gym’s life is opening week. Lease signed, fit-out paid for, payroll starting — and a black hole of marketing runway needed before the first dollars come in. Most owners start marketing after they open. By then, the meter has already been running for months.
How it works
How an AI sales agent books your appointments
Six channels feed in
Outbound email, SMS, voice and social — plus inbound search and AI referrals from our own AI SEO and chat agents.
Your list or CRM
Outbound starts from data you already own — past enquiries, dormant customers, or a targeted prospect list.
Qualified against your rules
Budget, timing and fit are checked before anything reaches your team, using criteria you set.
Booked into your calendar
Only qualified prospects reach the booking step, so your closers spend their time selling.
MAKE MORE SALES.
Pay-Per-Result pricing — We scale sales HARD aligned to your interests, better than anyone else.
What we did
1. Pre-launch waitlist campaign
Months before opening day, we ran a paid Meta build capturing a foundation-member waitlist with a deposit-anchored kickstarter offer. The result: people who said yes before the studio existed.
2. AI qualification and booking funnel
Every waitlist applicant was qualified by AI and slotted into a launch-week intro on Lacey’s calendar, with multi-channel reminders so the launch week itself ran like a conversion factory.
3. High-ticket offer architecture
We anchored the offer at full-priced, full-commitment economics — not a $9 trial — so that the founding members were the right members.
4. Always-on ramp from day one
The acquisition system didn’t switch on at launch. It was already humming, so month one looked like a mature operator’s month six.
Want this done for you? We book qualified sales appointments on a Pay-Per-Result basis — you only pay for calls that actually land in your calendar.
The results
The exact figure isn’t the point — the strategic outcome is. Lacey opened with a built pipeline instead of a blank one. She is on camera saying she is “so glad” she didn’t try to do this alone, which is the lesson most owners only learn after they’ve already burned through their opening capital.
Client quote
“I found Riley 5 months ago, before we even opened, and I’m so glad we did.” — Lacey Szekely, Swet
If we can’t make you money, we don’t deserve yours.
Pay-Per-Result pricing — performance-based alignment.
Takeaway for pre-launch gym owners
The single biggest predictor of whether a new gym survives its first 12 months is whether marketing started before the lease was signed or after. Pre-launch waitlists, deposit-anchored kickstarter offers, and a qualified booking system on day one are the difference between thriving and praying. Start marketing earlier than feels comfortable.
If you’re opening in the next 3–6 months, the most expensive thing you can do is wait. See how LeadsNow runs pre-launch builds or book a strategy session.
Pay-Per-Result appointments
See if we’re a fit
We book qualified sales appointments for you and you pay on results, not retainers. Our booking page asks a few quick questions so you find out in two minutes whether that model suits your business.
- 50,769+ appointments booked without cold calling.
- Pay-Per-Result pricing — you pay for booked, qualified calls.
- Pick your own time on our live calendar, no phone tag.