Community Highlights: Meet Mike Tromello of Precision CrossFit

Hi Mike, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started as a Strength & Conditioning Coach at Occidental College and then Harvard-Westlake School. Opened up my gym in 2012 four years into my tenure at HW. Five years later it was doing well enough to be at the gym full-time. At that point in my life, I was coaching elite CrossFit and Weightlifting athletes and needed to travel more than my job would allow. In addition, I had two young children at home that I felt I wasn’t seeing enough. So, I went full time into the private sector doing what I do. Six years later the gym is thriving. It’s allowing me to now coach my children and giving me extra time that I can spend with them.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Definitely not, haha. Since opening up Precision in 2012, I have bought out three partners to become the sole owner of my dream. Of course, there were various challenges with that. Some are good and some are not so good. In the end, it came down to one thing. The Gym centered around my knowledge and expertise. To me, this meant I should have soul stake financially with my intellectual property.

Other challenges were making sure my CrossFit gym community stayed tight and felt welcomed always. So along the way, I have had to make tough decisions to ask members to leave that affected the energy of the gym. Those decisions are always tough but have been for the greater good.

Lastly, COVID-19 was one of the biggest struggles, not just with my business but with my life. Having a family to support and not knowing if my gym was going to re-open was terrifying. But that community that I had cultivated and taken care of making those tough decisions throughout the year. They rallied behind me and kept us going. In addition, it forced me to really think outside the box. I pivoted to online classes instantly, did Zoom Happy Hours to bring people together, and I worked hard to re-open as soon as I could. In doing this, I invested $10,000 of my savings into developing an outdoor area. This led to the city of Agoura branding us as an essential business and we ran classes outside in this area for a year. In this time the gym actually had record profits, and I made my money back in 3 months. To this day, the area gets used and if anyone is afraid of getting sick they workout out there absolutely love it.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Precision CrossFit?
What sets Precision CrossFit apart from others is that we’re more than a CrossFit gym. We’re a true strength & conditioning facility with expertise in all sports. I have coached champions in CrossFit, Weightlifting, OCR, Hyrox, and a plethora of other sports including Football, Waterpolo, Cross Country, Baseball, Soccer, Track, and Basketball. We even have a youth weightlifting team in which 8 athletes, all girls, have qualified for National Championships. One of them being my own daughter who is the reigning 11U National Champion. Moreover, we have a ton of first responders who are members and we have become a go-to destination for incoming first responders to help prep them for academies throughout Southern California. Precision is a home for our members. It’s not just a place to workout.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I think more than anything. People should know that I built Precision to a place that I wanted my children to grow up in. It had to be special for that very reason and it is. My kids love their home away from home. They are inspired by the people that walk through the doors. Being a parent takes a village and my members are my village… not just for my kids but for every kid that walks through our doors.