20 Questions with  Outlaw FitCamps Dylan O’Neal

A huge part of Outlaw FitCamp’s growth and success these past few years has been our amazing franchise owners. We’re excited to introduce you to one of our superstars, Dylan O’Neal, Manager and soon-to-be owner of the Little Elm Outlaw FitCamp location.

Dylan was born in Lewisville Tx and grew up in Flower Mound. He loves working out and has been around fitness, in one form or another, all his life. In high school, he played football, basketball, and track. He played college basketball for a while at Southwestern College in Kansas, and then transferred to Texas Tech where he graduated.

1. Where is your Outlaw FitCamp location and when did you open?

We are located in Little Elm, Texas.

This location was Jesse’s first Outlaw FitCamp concept and second  location [Jesse Leyva, Founder of Outlaw FitCamp]. It’s been there for seven years now.

I’ve been with Outlaw FitCamp for six years, and I started at the bottom. I was brought on as a FitCamp instructor and personal trainer. For a while, I floated around to the Flower Mound, Hickory Creek, and Little Elm locations. Then an opportunity presented itself to step into a full-time management position in Little Elm. I took that on about four and half years ago.

2. What do you love about Little elm? 

What I love about Little Elm is that it still has a small-town feel to it. Even though it’s a growing area, it’s still very community based. Everyone still knows everyone. The town is really involved, and they put on a lot of good events for everyone who lives in Little Elm. It still has a small town feel to it, even though it’s growing and it’s right next to Frisco which is huge.

3. Have you always been interested in fitness?

Yes, fitness has always been a part of my life. My mom was big in fitness so when I was a little kid, she would take me with her to the gym where I had to go to the gym day care.

I’ve always trained and played sports. I’ve just always been around fitness. It’s been a part of my life, in some way, as long as I can remember.

4.What made you love Outlaw FitCamp more than other franchise opportunities?

For me, I grew up in Outlaw FitCamp. I’ve been here from the beginning and have seen it transform into what it is today. Jesse and Tiffany have been my coaches throughout this journey. They gave me a lot of leadership and they believed a lot in me. I had to grow up a lot in this position.

What I love about Outlaw is that we’re different from other fitness franchises in that we offer group training classes, and we also offer personal training and one-on-one coaching. A lot of places don’t offer all that. I really do love that concept.

5. What does your work mean to you?

Honestly, my work means a lot to me. I like being of service to other people and I get to do that through fitness every day. I get to see amazing people and help them. With training, you get to interact with people and sometimes a training session turns into something like a therapy session. It means a lot to me to be of service to other people.

6. What are your goals with Outlaw FitCamp?

Right now I’m working to convert the Little Elm location from corporate to a franchise so it will be my own location. My further goals are to branch out to expand and have two or three more locations.

7. How did you put together your team?

We’ve been blessed with great talent and have four trainers on staff. Two of them are former clients of ours.

One is Carrie Grimes. She signed up as a client a few years ago and went through an amazing transformation where she lost over 100 pounds. She then competed in a competition which I helped her train for. After going through all that and having that experience, she decided she wanted to do that for others. So she got her personal training certification and we hired her. She’s a full-time school teacher, but she’s also a part-time trainer with us.

Also, we have Brandon Berry. He started doing personal training with our trainer, Leslie Knickman. Brandon lost over 50 pounds and again, going through that transformation, he wanted to do the same for others. He got his certification and we hired him as a trainer.

I already mentioned Leslie Nickman, our trainer. She’s amazing. She has been a trainer for over 25 years. She worked for a big-box gym for a long time, but she got to know Jesse and decided and loved the concept so she wanted to move to Outlaw and has been with us for over a year.

8. What support from Outlaw FitCamp has been most helpful to you?

There’s a lot of support.

The first thing that comes to mind though—this past year Jesse and Tiffany invested in business coaching. For a year, I had my own business coach. I went to a leadership program. It taught me a lot on how to run a business, how to manage a business, how to be better at sales. It was a huge investment for Jesse and Tiffany financially that they did for me, and it really was life changing.

9. What inspires you or motivates you to wake up and go to work?

So in our industry, we start early. Sometimes I’m up at 3:45 or 4:00 in the morning. That can be a struggle. But for me, it just goes back to being of service to others. That’s what motivates me the most to get out of bed—to be able to help others throughout their day.

We have a lot of people who are struggling when they come in. When they come in to Outlaw, they have that 30-minutes of their day to themselves, to push themselves. I want to make sure we give them the best experience so when they leave, they feel better about themselves and better about getting on with their day.

10.What kind of resources from Outlaw FitCamp do you take advantage of?

I can think of several things.

Number one, the leadership that Jesse and Tiffany provide. As long as I’ve known him, Jesse has always had an open door. He always makes time for me, always has time to mentor and coach me. It’s the same with Tiffany. The leadership they provide internally is great.

Also, the marketing and advertising that they provide is great. They’re always innovative. And they are solution-based. If they see anything that’s not working, they don’t just brush it off. They attack any problems and find solutions.

And of course, the business coaching I talked about earlier that they provided for me was huge.

These are all big resources for me.

11.What is your favorite workout music?

I enjoy rap music. I prefer rap or hip hop when I work out. Not all our client base likes that [laughs]. But when I’m personally working out, that’s what I prefer.

12.What are the most important benefits for you in owning an Outlaw FitCamp franchise?

The biggest benefit for me is that I get to wake up and do what I love every morning. I get to wake up and help people out through fitness.

Also, I get to be my own boss. Of course as a franchise, there are rules and regulations that you have to follow, but I’m my own boss. I really do love the benefit of being a business owner. Even though there’s a lot of pressure, it’s up to me to make it successful and I love that challenge as well.

13. What do you like to do in your spare time?

Sports is a hobby for me. I really enjoy pushing myself in the gym.

Besides fitness, I love watching movies, I like to read, and I collect vinyl records.

14. What goals do you have for your business?

I want to grow. I want to grow the Little Elm location. And then I’d like to expand into the Frisco area.

15. What is your one favorite thing about owning an Outlaw FitCamp franchise?

The freedom of knowing you are your own boss.

16. What have you learned so far that you didn’t know before?

That is not an easy question [laughs]. With the whole experience I’ve had so far, I’ve learned so much about how a business operates. Not even in just the fitness industry, but how a business in general needs to be run to be successful.

17. What advice would you give someone looking for a franchise opportunity?

Believe in yourself. I think a lot of people who are looking for a franchise, whether in this industry or another, love the idea of it. But when they get further into it and closer to actually doing it, then fear might set in and they might back off. So my advice would be if everything makes sense, take a leap of faith and go for it.

Having said that, do your research. Crunch the numbers and make sure it financially makes sense for you. Take time to read the manual. Research everything. If it makes sense, then take a leap of faith.

18. What three words would you use to describe workouts at Outlaw FitCamp?

Fun, energetic, intense.

19. What is your favorite form of exercise personally?

You know what? I love leg day. Everyone usually hates leg day, but I actually love leg day. [laughs]

20. Anything else you want to add?

I’d just like to express that my experience at Outlaw has been so cool. I started from the bottom with this company. I went from mopping the floors and taking out the trash. They saw something in me and now I’m going to be a franchise owner. That’s something really cool that I think a lot of other companies don’t do. Without Jesse and Tiffany’s leadership and their belief in me, that never would have happened.

If you think you may be interested in joining our Outlaw FitCamp family, learn more about becoming a franchise owner here. We’re growing quickly and you may be the perfect addition to our team! Contact us today to discuss the opportunity.