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Getting Back to Your Roots: Why Small, Personal Moments Still Matter

I am all about growth, but sometimes we have to get back to the basics and start doing the things that made us so successful in those first few years of business.

Hey guys, and welcome to this episode of the Full Out Cheer Podcast. I’m Danielle, and I’m excited to be your host for today.

What Makes You Different From the Mega Gyms

I was talking to a gym owner this week who’s surrounded by all these really big mega gyms, and she said, “I just have to figure out how to separate myself. How do I make sure people know what makes me different?” Because she can’t compete purely on the best facility, the most well-known coaches, or the most famous choreographers. And of course, if you’re listening to this podcast, you already know those things don’t actually define a great gym anyway.

As we were talking, I was writing down some notes, and I told her: the thing you can do that’s so different from every mega gym out there is do things on a personal level for your athletes that they will never be able to do, simply because of scalability. So let me give you a few examples and talk about how it can be beneficial to actually get back to our roots.

I think a lot of times, as gyms grow, we’re automating more, doing more, and the program keeps expanding. And if you think back to those first couple of years, I’d bet that if you’ve seen substantial growth recently, you’ve walked away from some of the things that made you successful in the first place.

The Scrappy Early Days

This was something we talked about in my gym about a year and a half or two years ago. When we first started, we did all kinds of events. Every grand opening that needed a performer, we were there. There was an air show — could we perform at the air show? We were there. We even had someone ask if we could perform for a Guinness Book of World Records attempt for the most babies cloth-diapered at the same time. It was the early days, and we said yes to everything. Can we pass out flyers? Sure.

Over time, we looked back and realized some of those things — like sitting at vendor events for two or three days — weren’t the most effective use of our time. It was expensive on staffing, and we weren’t sure we got much out of it. At the end of the day, you sometimes have to make those calls. But I also think it’s worth looking at how your gym actually grew in the first place. One of the things we recognized was that it was some of those small, personal events where we met the people who became part of our gym for the next five, ten, even fifteen years.

Oddly enough, at that cloth-diapering event, we met a mom who still has a daughter in our gym today — she’s had five daughters go through our program, and she’s been connected to our gym in one way or another for the last 15 seasons. We’ve performed at a Christmas event at a car dealership, and plenty of other strange events. In the beginning, you’re scrappy — any event that gets you out there, shows your logo, and puts kids in your t-shirts, you’re in.

When I was talking to this gym owner, I told her you can still be smart about how you approach it, but you can look back at the grassroots things you used to do for your athletes in the early days and bring some of that spirit back.

The Mickey Mouse Balloon Story

Let me give you an example. The first time we ever went to Summit, we had two locations and two teams going — about 25 kids total. It was our first time traveling to Orlando, even though we’d done other big events before. My business partner and I went to 11 different schools with a flower and a Mickey Mouse balloon that said, “Good luck at Summit, we can’t wait to see you in Florida,” along with a little note. We dropped one off at the front office of each of those 11 schools the day before the kids left for Florida.

It was such a small thing, but those kids got called to the office, got handed a Mickey Mouse balloon, and carried it around school all day. It was something special we could do for our athletes back when we only had 25 kids going to Florida. Would that be easy to do at our current scale, where I took 79 kids to Florida last year? No, definitely not. But are there things you can still do to make activities feel personal for your athletes, even as you grow? I think so.

The Midnight “Arrest” Theme Reveal

Here’s what we did this week at my gym. We have two dance teams, and our teams do a theme reveal because we always theme our dance routines. My senior team’s theme was going to be “prison break.” So I called the parents together for a meeting and said, “I’ve got this weird idea — I want to go to your house in the middle of the night and ‘arrest’ your kids, do a little booking process with fingerprints and mugshots, then they can eat ice cream and go home. But it’s the middle of the night, so they won’t be expecting it.” The parents were all about it.

I definitely forgot in the moment that our kids lived in two directions, 20 minutes apart from the gym. We pulled all their addresses and put them into ChatGPT, which estimated it would take two and a half hours to pick everyone up. I figured it would only take an hour. We left around 9:45 PM on Tuesday night and headed to the first location.

Honestly, it was so much fun. Justin used to work highway patrol, and I had a hoodie that said “SWAT” or “state trooper” — it looked completely legit. We had an app on the phone that simulated police sirens, complete with red and blue flashing lights, along with zip ties. (Trust me, our parents are pretty cool with this kind of thing.) I read each kid their rights, more or less — “You have the right to remain silent” — because I’d watched a few episodes of NYPD Blue and figured I knew what I was doing.

We have a Twister bus for our before- and after-school program, so each kid got zip-tied behind the back and loaded onto the bus while we played the Cops theme song for every pickup. By kid number eight, we’d heard that theme song a million times. The kids had a blast — one girl literally tried to run, so we joked she was “fleeing.” Another girl wouldn’t wake up, even hearing my voice in her room, and I asked her, “Do you even know who’s in your bedroom right now?” She still wouldn’t wake up. It was hilarious.

We brought the kids back to the gym, did the fingerprinting, and made it a whole experience. It only worked because it’s a small team — but the real question is, how can you take an idea like that and make it work for your athletes?

Don’t Let Fairness Concerns Stop You

I know a lot of times we hold back because we’re afraid — what if an athlete on another team gets upset that we didn’t do something special for them too? Well, this is your opportunity. I talked to a gym owner today who has 14 teams. Her rule is: every team gets one special event a month, and one month a year, every team gets two. So you can build something memory-making for each team, on a schedule that makes it fair and sustainable.

If you’re a small gym with smaller teams, it’s so much easier to do things like this. If you’re a larger gym and still want that fun, family feel — the feeling of just creating memories together — start asking yourself: what can I do that still feels like it did back in the early days, when I only had 25 kids in the gym?

Small, Casual Gestures Go a Long Way

There are some easy things you can do. I remember back when my daughter was on a tiny or mini team, we had a team text thread, and I sent a message saying, “Hey, we’re going to see the Minions movie tonight at seven. She’s wearing her Minion shirt. If any of you want to come, we’ll be there at seven at the movie theater.” The whole team showed up that night.

It doesn’t have to be formal — it can be casual, just a coach saying, “Hey, we’re doing this.” Years ago, I did the same thing with my daughter’s dance team: “Hey, we’re going to the park to play at three if anyone wants to join.” Only one other kid was able to make it, but that was a kid my daughter had never really talked to or connected with on the team. They got to play together at the park on a Sunday.

Maybe it’s inviting the team to a parade or a Christmas tree lighting — “Hey, anybody who can make it, we’d love to have you.” Maybe it’s, “We’re going to the pool this afternoon, we rented two lanes, we can fit about five more people if anyone’s able to come.” There are plenty of small-scale things you can do that are still genuinely fun.

The Surprise Sunday Open Gym

Last year, shortly before a season started, I hosted a surprise open gym. We don’t normally practice on Sundays in the summer — we do two practices a week, and that Sunday slot becomes a daytime practice for my elite teams, with one nighttime practice during the week. For whatever reason — I think we’d had to cancel an open gym — I felt really encouraged to do one that Sunday.

So I said, “I’m going to host an open gym Sunday, and I don’t need any staff — I’ll just come in myself, and our competitive kids can come tumble for free. I’ll offer an hour or two of open gym time, but if you’re there, you better be working.” I ended up being the DJ of open gym. We did things we normally don’t do — I played Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” at the end, which got the parents laughing.

It was such a fun experience to be there in that role. Kids kept calling out, “Coach Danielle, watch this! Coach Danielle, look at this!” — because as the owner, I’m not usually at open gyms, so it felt special for all of us. About 30 kids showed up, some driving 30 to 40 minutes to be there on a Sunday.

Finding What’s Unique to Your Scale

It’s really important to think about how you can be unique while staying true to who you are. That takes some evaluation — financial and time. What events make sense to do every year? What makes sense to do occasionally? What can you do to make things special for your athletes? Put it in this perspective: what can I do at my current size that I wouldn’t be able to do if I had 700 cheerleaders instead of 150? What can I do with 60 athletes that I could never pull off with 600? Start doing it now.

Sometimes it’s something as simple as popsicles. The week of the Fourth of July, all our rec kids get a popsicle as they’re leaving the gym — bomb pops last year. Just something small and fun tied to the holiday. We did that even with 600 kids in the gym at the time, because I put it in that perspective: what can I do at 600 that I probably couldn’t do at a thousand? I wouldn’t even have freezer space for a thousand popsicles — but I can do it at 600.

So, while you’re enjoying your summer — sitting by the pool or the ocean, and if you are, I’m a little jealous — I want you to think: what can I do in my gym that brings us back to our roots? What reminds me of the early days, when growth still felt fun and nostalgic? And what can I do at this stage in my gym that I won’t be able to do once we double in size? Do those things now.

If you enjoyed this episode of the Full Out Cheer Podcast, make sure you head over to our Facebook groups — Cheer Gym Owners for our gym owners, and All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners for those who also like to get on the mat and coach. Thank you so much for listening, you guys, and with that, I’ll see you on the next episode.