Jeff Soileau of Alamo 180 tells us how he spreads the word about his multi-sport box.

Jeff Soileau of Alamo 180 tells us how he spreads the word about his multi-sport box and his plans for the future.

What is your name? Jeff Soileau

How would you describe your title? (owner, trainer, coach). I’m coach Jeff, the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Alamo 180. My wife, Bree, and I are co-owners.

Where should we send visitors? www.alamo180.com.  On IG we’re @alamo_180

What is the name of your box? Alamo 180 Multisport+Training, LLC

Are you a CrossFit Affiliate? Not an affiliate.

How many years have you been in business?  Alamo 180 was established in 2011. We operated our strength, run and triathlon training services out of local parks around town. In March 2014 we opened our first “multisport box.”

How many members do you have? We are sitting at 107 total athletes.

What sort of training do you offer (personal training, group fitness, etc)? At Alamo 180 we are not just a box for strength and conditioning, but for triathlon and running as well!  We are San Antonio’s only multisport box. We specialize in strength and conditioning classes (which we call IRON XT) and group and custom training for triathlon and running. Coming early 2017 we will be offering another training program called Obstacle Course Racing (OCR). We want to provide many avenues for athletes to miantain a healthy lifestyle.

How would you describe your community? Most of our people just want to lead a healthy life, and use a variety of sports (triathlon, running, OCR) to obtain that goal. We are competitive in house, yet highly supportive of one another and we celebrate each athlete's victory, large or small. We have a positive and very supportive training environment. The moment you walk through our doors, you belong.

How would you describe your training style or philosophy? For all our programs, first and foremost, do no harm. For us, exercise isn't just a sport, but more importantly a lifestyle. Our strength and endurance programs are developed in a periodized manner while focusing on proper form. We believe this to be the most effective and safest way to build fitness and set healthy lifestyle goals. As the head strength coach, I think the most important thing is how well an athlete moves weight, not how much weight an athlete moves.  Don't be afraid to make mistakes; own it, learn from it, share with others, and move on. Our head triathlon, run and OCR coaches would speak the same regarding their sport. Move well and efficiently before moving fast.

Do you offer nutrition advice?  We offer nutrition support through teaching moderation, and guiding athletes toward a liberal Paleo-style diet, based on fresh foods, and avoiding processed foods and sugar.

Tell us about your box. We're pretty unique in the San Antonio market in that we are the first endurance sports training company to open a strength training facility. Because of that initial success, we were able to grow a stand alone strength and conditioning program, IRON XT. But we didn’t stop with that. We started an OCR training program with future plans to build an obstacle course on site, and in January 2017 we are opening an indoor cycling studio. Our goal is to make Alamo 180 a one stop fitness spot.

Tell us about your fitness journey.  I ran cross country and track in high school, in Florida in the late 80's. I was heavily influenced by comic books, Schwarzeneggar movies and Gil Janklowicz, so I started lifting weights along with my running.  I didn't have a car, so I rode my bike everywhere!  Eight years in the military reinforced my love of cross training, and I soon began training my fellow soldiers.  Years later, I met Bree and we would joke about owning our own fitness based company, and after 4 years of marriage and the birth of our daughter, we decided to go for it!  We left our safe corporate jobs and went all in. We love that fitness is our "job" and count ourselves incredibly blessed to serve a wonderful and diverse group of athletes and coaches!

Describe your best source for getting new members. Word of mouth

Is there anything that you found for member retention? We gather for a "Benchmark, BBQ and Beer" every quarter, as we celebrate the end of a training cycle and the accomplishments each athlete has made.  We also do small challenges to keep attendance high, such as a burpee challenge, or simple attendance challenges.

Are there any marketing channels that you hate or are very poor? Bree is really good at blogging, IG and Facebook.  I, on the other hand, am TERRIBLE at it! We tried doing Yellow Pages and various ads online but we didn’t feel it gave us the ROI we were looking for. We stopped spending money on advertising and decided to spend that money on our current clients.

Is there anything you've done for your box or customers that's been a game changer? Continually putting our money back into the box via new equipment. Our members loving seeing their dollars at work!

If you were starting again from scratch, what would you do? Regarding our box, I wish we opened it 5 years sooner!

Is there anything you'd like to add? We have been incredibly blessed to have such a loyal and giving clientele!  They help make our "work" not feel like "work!"

Want your Box featured? Email us at team@fringesport.com and we will be in contact with you with more details.