Today we’d like to introduce you to Noal DuBois.
Noal, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was overweight my entire childhood and into my teens. The obesity and depression that came from it was very hard to deal with but helped shape where CrossFit Defined is today.
My 20s were spent studying nutrition, weight training, and martial arts. I moved to Chicago in 2005 for a sales job. In 2010 while working out of La Boxing doing personal training on the weekends and CrossFitting for my own personal fitness; I met my current business partner, David Sutor. David was the manager at La Boxing at the time.
I approached David with my idea of bringing a CrossFit program to their studio. David had expressed to me that he has always wanted to own and operate his own gym as well. We got to talking and quickly found out we both had the same interests and long term goals. We also found out we both had recently purchased motorcycles which felt like a perfect fit.
We spent the next 6 months riding all over the city on our motorcycles looking for spaces to open up our first CrossFit training facility. We spent months exploring spaces from Lakeview all the way up to Evanston.
After months of looking we finally ended up with a small 2,000 sq./ft. facility on Southport and Cornelia. We then started the buildout that we both did personally on the weekends and late nights since we both had full time careers at the time.
We both decided to quite our day jobs and go all in with this new venture together. David moved back in with his family in the suburbs in order to save money. We took a huge risk and went all in from day 1. We opened up on January 3rd, 2011. After a few short weeks, we gained 30 new members in our first month which set the tone for incredible growth for the next 6 years.
We quickly grew out of that facility in under 16 months. In April of 2012, we expanded to a larger facility on Belmont. We grew out of that facility in a few short years.
In July of 2013, we opened up our 2nd facility in Lincoln Square. Both gyms were going really well so we expanded our training programs, class offerings and our coaching staff to accommodate all the amazing athletes that trusted us with their safety and fitness.
Finally, in 2016 we moved out of our Belmont facility in Lakeview and moved into our new home at 3834 N. Broadway. We had a new building built in the backyard of Gill park and patiently waited almost a year till the project was finished and we could announce to our members that we had a bigger, better facility waiting for us on the North-east side of Lakeview. All of our members came with us which was a huge show of support to who we are and what we were doing!
Both gyms are running great. Our monthly beginner’s fundamentals program where we introduce new members to the program have been full and sold out since we opened.
We now have an amazing supportive community and team of coaches to lead them and couldn’t ask for more.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Some of our first struggles were focused on funding. We wrote a very long 40+ page business plan and submitted that to the small business association asking for funding for our opening. It took many months and many times being turned down for loans before someone helped us out.
After opening, many of the struggles of working in fitness were people related. Finding the right coaches and also keeping those coaches for the long term. Maintaining the strong personal connections to our members as we grew. Also, the constant struggle of trying not be stale. Always trying to evolve the program, grow, learn from our mistakes, offer more for our members as the months and years went by. Staying fresh and new and always giving more is very challenging but very much part of who we are and what we are trying to be for our community.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with CrossFit Defined– tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are a CrossFit Gym first and foremost but the CrossFit training does not completely define us. It is part of many things we use to get our athletes in shape. Power lifting, Olympic Weightlifting, kettlebells, endurance, rowing, gymnastics, medicine balls; are just some of the things we use for training here at CFD.
There are 3 major things that set us apart:
Coaching: We are big on skill and technical training here. Form and technique always have to be demonstrated before adding weight or intensity. Some of our coaches have 10s of thousands of hours of coaching experience. We are known for being very hands on and very detail driven with our athletes.
Programming: Our in depth, well thought out strength and conditioning programming is very balanced and has a lot of elements of pre-and post-habilitative movements to keep athletes safe and progressing according to their goals and capabilities.
Community: Community is very important to us. Having friends to work out with, making friends in class. Being accountable not only to your coaches but also to your fellow athletes is paramount to your success in our program. The more friends you have in our community the more you are going to want to be in one of our gyms working out, getting stronger, bettering your health and fitness.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We are always thinking about what’s next for CrossFit Defined. We are not in a place to announce our next venture but there are always big things on the horizon with us. We don’t like to be complacent and always thinking about how we can be better and provide more for our members.
We have a big fundraiser coming up that we host every year. It’s called “CFD Gives Back”. We have yet to choose where the donations will go but we have raised and given back to the community over $150,000 in the past 6 years. Our community is the best and supports anything we get behind.
We also just started our running/endurance training season which includes some outdoor running classes on the waterfront and running skills and drills to ensure our athletes have the correct technique for those upcoming long distance events.
Contact Info:
- Address: CrossFit Defined Lakeview/Wrigleyville
3834 N. Broadway
Chicago IL. 60613
CrossFit Defined Lincoln Square
2750 W. Lawrence Ave
Chicago IL 60625 - Website: www.crossfitdefined.com
- Phone: 773 680 2331
- Email: info@crossfitdefined.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crossfitdefined/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrossFitDefined/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/crossfit-defined-chicago-2
- Other: https://www.yelp.com/biz/crossfit-defined-lincoln-square-chicago
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