At a glance: Kat Rumbold runs The Lambda Academy, a strength-based gym in regional WA. Coming out of the 2020 lockdown with around 70 members left and no staff, she joined More Gym Members (MGM) — the gym-focused brand LeadsNow ran for fitness businesses at the time. The result: 75 new members in two and a half months, doubled classes, upgraded equipment and a staff member brought on — as told by Kat Rumbold on camera in the filmed interview below.
The key numbers
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| New members signed | 75 in about 2.5 months (“hasn’t quite been three months”) |
| Members before starting | About 70 permanent members on the books |
| Classes | Doubled — most classes completely full |
| Team | From Kat alone to a staff member on |
| Facility | Equipment upgraded, gym layout redone |
Watch Kat tell it herself
A note on when this was filmed: this interview is from 2020, when LeadsNow ran its fitness vertical under the More Gym Members (MGM) brand — that’s Bo from MGM asking the questions. The campaign predates our current AI sales agents; what Kat describes is the done-for-you member-acquisition program the team ran at the time.
The situation: out of lockdown with 70 members and no team
Kat is a powerlifter who built her own gym “really in the middle of nowhere” — a strength-based facility in WA. When lockdown hit, that specialty became a liability. You can’t easily train strength athletes over Zoom, and even after renting out her equipment, members drifted away.
By the time WA reopened, she was down to roughly 70 permanent members. In her words:
“We sort of had about 70 odd on the books as permanent members that were quite happy to stay, but obviously that’s not enough to maintain a facility and actually pay the rent and live. So yeah, we weren’t in a good way, and really it was just me and that was it.”
Her landlords offered a lifeline — take a couple of months’ rent and reinvest it in the business. As Kat put it, she “scraped up the last of my pennies and went, you’ve either gotta go hard or go home.”
What she did: a program with no sales calls
Kat had been on Riley’s mailing list for years without acting on it. What finally moved her was a comment she spotted on Facebook:
“There was something on Facebook where someone said, oh, I haven’t had to make any sales calls. And I thought, that’s the program for me. I hate making sales calls, like with a passion.”
That was the whole appeal. Kat is great with people who walk into her gym already interested — “I can sell them anything,” she says — but cold sales calls were never going to happen. So she signed on to the More Gym Members program, backed by regular coaching sessions, and put her energy where it counts: training people. It’s the same principle behind how we approach client acquisition for high-ticket coaching and fitness businesses today — the business owner sells; the pipeline shouldn’t depend on them chasing strangers.
Sound like your business? Book a call and we’ll talk it through.
The result: 75 new members in two and a half months
Two and a bit months later — not quite three, as Kat and Bo note in the interview — The Lambda Academy had added 75 new members. Not 75 total: 75 added, on top of the members who stayed. Here’s how she describes the gym now:
“Most of our classes are completely full. I’ve had to double the amount of classes we’ve got… The vibe’s really cool. I’ve upgraded a bunch of equipment. Redone the layout in the gym… I’ve never been so busy in my life.”
She’s brought on a staff member, and long-time members are noticing the change — “well, I think you found the formula,” one told her. Beyond the numbers, Kat says the growth has given her room to plan: to step away from the day-to-day soon, then expand or go again. “It’s giving me some freedom… freedom for my life, which is probably the best thing.”
Her advice for owners on the fence about getting help:
“Just get as much help as you can… Trust the people that have been there and done it… Put the work in, you’ll get the work out.”
FAQ
What did the campaign for The Lambda Academy actually involve?
It was the More Gym Members program — LeadsNow’s gym-focused brand in 2020 — combining done-for-you member acquisition with regular coaching sessions. The part that sold Kat was not having to make sales calls: interested locals came to her, and she closed them in person. The campaign predates LeadsNow’s current AI sales agents.
Is this kind of growth realistic for a gym or fitness business?
Demand for fitness has never been higher — the Health & Fitness Association’s research reports that a record 81 million Americans belonged to a gym, studio or other fitness facility, around 26.1% of the US population aged 6 and older. The demand is there; the constraint is usually a predictable way to reach it. Every business is different, though — Kat’s numbers are hers, stated on camera, not a promise.
Does LeadsNow still work with fitness businesses?
Yes. Fitness studios and gyms sit within the high-ticket coaching and fitness businesses we work with across Australia. Today that work is powered by our AI sales agents, which have booked 50,769+ sales appointments since 2017 off the back of 1M+ leads generated.
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