Episode 6 - Lessons in Grit, Growth, and
Leading by Example

Leadership isn’t defined by where you start—it’s built through action, resilience, and the courage to keep moving forward.

From serving as a U.S. Army officer in Iraq and Afghanistan to building multiple F45 Training studios across the Seattle area, John Bankson turned discipline into drive and risk into opportunity. His story is one of grit, reinvention, and learning to lead by example—whether in the military, in business, or in life.

Note, this podcast features real entrepreneurs sharing real challenges and solutions. No pitches, no sales - just honest conversations about the moments that shape successful businesses.

Aaron: Tell me your story, your personal story, your entrepreneurial story.

John: I grew up on a farm in Nebraska. My parents owned the farm and they never went to work, 'cause being on the farm was work. So, I grew up not realizing it, that I was in an entrepreneurial household without really thinking about it.

And so, when I got into the real world, I'm like, this is a lot different than what I grew up with. I knew I didn't wanna farm, but I really missed the entrepreneurial piece of life that my parents raised me with – learning how to do pretty much everything out of necessity. Being a diesel mechanic to knowing how to weld to everything. You have to know how to operate a farm because you have to work on the stuff. The requirement to be self-sufficient and be an entrepreneur was just something that has always driven me. We didn't have a lot of money, so when I told my mom I wanted to go to college, going outta state was like, not really something nice right possible. And I know I wanna do something bigger and better than staying in Nebraska.

I always loved watching military movies and my Uncle was in the military. So I got a scholarship in the Army and I was able to go outta state, and the army paid for my college, which changed me a lot.

Aaron: How did it change you? I can only imagine that experience because you weren't just in the army, you were active duty in Iraq,

John: In college I was in ROTC. I was one of those students that had to wake up at 5:00 AM and go work out every day and then go to class and then study military history and military philosophy and leadership and all these other things about becoming a military officer. The payback was serving active duty in the military.

Germany – that's where I wanted to go. That's where my family immigrated from and so I took German in college. And then I put my request down to go to Germany and, sure enough, I got assigned to Heidelberg, Germany, the Seventh Signal Brigade (because I was a signal officer).

And then, halfway through my training in Georgia, they're like, “Nope, we're re directing you to Belgium.” I'm like, “Oh, great. I don't speak French.” It ended up being a good decision and, I worked for NATO in Belgium, and I learned French at the time. During that time, that was when the Bosnian conflict was going on. So I went to Bosnia. That was my first time. I saw the horrors of humanity, and then I got outta the military.

In 2000, I was working in civilian jobs. Nine-eleven happened. I'm like, how do I get back? I think a lot of people felt that overwhelming patriotism when nine-eleven happened and everybody put their American flags out.

I'm like, I gotta get back. I gotta figure out how. My girlfriend at the time (who is now my wife) got a residency down in Houston. So we moved to Houston and I started applying for jobs and got an opportunity to be a private military contractor in Iraq.

After I got outta the military. I didn't wanna really manage people anymore because I found out what a pain in the butt it is to manage people.

Aaron: Right.

John: Every business owner will tell you employees are, challenging to say the least. So I went into the office. I went to my engineering and computer science background and I became one of the top work engineers in the world.

That's why the military wanted me. They primarily hired me first for cybersecurity. I was going to be one of the security engineers running security firewalls in Iraq and Afghanistan. And then I got over there, while that was needed, they had some other people doing that. So I became the lead network engineer running all the communications and the internet, for Afghanistan and Iraq communicating with Kuwait.

So that was fun. It was an interesting time in my life.

Aaron: 

John: Really changed my perspective on life.

Aaron: How did that affect you? What did you rethink?

John: I became a pacifist. That's really what it came down to. I used to think war was okay and an acceptable solution, but now I just, I've seen the horrors of it. I, get it. Sometimes it happens, but when it happens, it needs to be decisive and quick and violent and not drawn out. Afghanistan and Iraq – a 20 year endeavor with no winner.

Aaron: You and I know one another. I know you to be an optimistic and positive person. How did you emerge from that experience and remain optimistic?

John: I met a lot of Iraqis and great people and they were positive. And to see them, excited about capitalism coming to their country and democracy coming to their country. And yeah, they were concerned about the violence and stuff as well. But, there was opportunity there amongst the violence.

Just as it was in Bosnia. I still remember eating at a restaurant that was just amazing. And they were opened up in a war-torn city. You could still get a steak and a glass of wine in Sarajevo. And this entrepreneurial spirit was alive. Even in the middle of conflict.

Aaron: So you came back and what was next for you professionally?

John: So when I started doing engineering, I wanted to obviously make some money.

Aaron: you had a unique set of credentials too, I would assume. That made you really sought after in the market.

John: I had a computer science degree and a Master's in Management Information Systems, and then I got this cert called Cisco Certified Network Expert.

There were less than 10,000 of us in the world. I felt that when I got that, I was at the top of my game. And I soon realized that no, I wasn't. That the salespeople were making way more than I was. I went to the president of the company I worked for at the time. I say, how do I go into sales? Because those guys have all the power and they make all the money. He just laughed me and said, John. You are not cut out for it. You'll never be a salesperson. That's all I needed to hear.

Aaron: That was the red flag.

John: I was on a mission.  If you tell me, no, I can't do something, I'm gonna go find a way to do it.

So I went into pre-sales, which is engineering with sales. And I was really good at it, and everybody would use me and I was very successful at it. And so when I moved to Houston after Iraq, I became a pre-sale engineer. By that time, my wife got her fellowship here in Washington at UW.

I found a company in Seattle that did the same stuff and went into pre-sales there. I talked to the VP here locally and says, Hey, I wanna go into sales. And, we worked out a plan and eventually, within two years I was in sales. And I was the top sales guy very shortly in the region.

That's how I got into sales. I just, had to overcome the introvert parts. And I had to maybe grow as a person.

Aaron:  And you had an almost 20-year career in sales, right?

John: Yes. And I, and I got tired of it. The thing that drew me to sales the most, I think, is that it's somewhat entrepreneurial.

I worked full commission, that was my favorite. It was feast or famine and everything I killed, I, got to take home for the most part. It was great. My company never really questioned my expenses because I was making so much money for them. And I basically ran my sales business like my own business within parameters.

Then we got bought and we got a new manager who said, “Ooh, you guys are making way too much money in sales.” They put you on a base-plus, and they just kept wheedling it down. I'm like, this no longer feels entrepreneurial. It feels like a corporate job again. And that's when I started looking for my next plan.

Aaron: That's a strange and often repeated pattern that there's maybe a new CEO or a new set of management who come in and decide the sales guys are making too much money. And it's always wrong. I think philosophically the sales guys should make the most money in the company and you shouldn't punish your high performers.

John: No, that's a good way to get rid of 'em.

Aaron: I would assume you know what made you a very good salesperson? Do you have a sense for what that was?

John: I was relationship-oriented 'cause I was never really good at asking for the sale. That was always the tough part. But I knew if I built a good, solid relationship with somebody and showed them my expertise and showed them my added value that they would just wanna buy from me.

And that's what worked. It worked really well. I'm not, I wasn't the aggressive fra boy sales guy coming outta college says, Hey, I got 15 things. Which one do you wanna buy? That was a lot of my peers. I like that.  Really pushy. I was not pushy at all. I was there to solve problems for my customers and that's how I.

Perceive myself,

Aaron: I suspect your technical expertise and also just the fact that you weren't pushy, but also that you were just inherently trustworthy.

John: The counselor, they could ask me a question. I would, most of the time I could give an answer, like right off the cuff was a technical thing. I'd say, that's, this is the answer, and if I didn't know it, I could go get it.

Aaron: Before we continue, I want to tell you about the community that made this podcast possible. The Seattle chapter of eo, that's Entrepreneurs Organization. It's not networking, it's not selling to each other. It's real entrepreneurs sharing real challenges and solutions. If you have a business that does at least a million a year in revenue, and you're curious about joining a community that gets what you're going through, check out EO C.

So you, tired of sales and tired of corporate sales. Okay. Yes.

John:  And that led you to, when I turned 40, my kids were, five or six. And after the army, I gotta, the army I, stopped working out.  And I got out, I'm like, I don't have to do it anymore. So I didn't. When I'd gotten married, I was I 265 pounds and it wasn't muscle.

That's my son, one of his. Kids came over and I, made some comment like, Hey shorty. And he looked at me, says, what's up, fatty? and I'm like, whoa.  And I realized oh my God, I am fat.  I gotta get in shape. I need to be around for my kids. I had just turned 40 and so I found something called CrossFit.

Yeah, it was very military style kind of a workout. And I did that for six years as I was thinking about leaving sales. Like I want to go do something that's fun, sustainable for me, for my life, something that tie into my goals of being fit and healthy and living a long life where I can be mobile my whole life.

 Wheelchair bound or in some retirement home after my third injury in CrossFit, I find something slightly different. CrossFits, was just. A little too, I wouldn't say intense, but insane maybe is the right word. The third time I got hurt was a, heavy overhead squat. Hurt my left shoulder and that was out for several months.

I'd been looking open up CrossFit box during this time. That was my, maybe that was the solution because I was looking at all kinds of business things, what do I want to do? Man, Facebook's pretty darn good. They knew exactly what I was looking for, and so they threw up a F 45 ad, what's this? And I watched the video like, that looks pretty cool.

So I clicked on the learn more button like. So many people do.  And I filled out my information, send it in, and next thing you know, I got an email from a guy named Damien. And we got on a call and we talked about it and I was going to Vegas for a conference. And this is back in 2016 or 2017.

He's there's not very many in the United States right now 'cause this is the refer five is from Australia. okay, just, where are they at? He says, we got some in Vegas, some in LA and some in Pennsylvania. I'm like. I'm going to Vegas in a couple weeks. heck, just go do a drop it, go do a workout, just see what it's like.

So I did halfway through the workout I gave, that was my future light bulb clicked. What did you love about it? The easiest way to sum it up is it was everything I loved about CrossFit, but none of the stuff I hated about CrossFit was there.

Aaron: What falls in those two categories? 'cause I'm, we've talked about this before.

I'm quite curious. I haven't done F 45. I've done CrossFit.

John: Yeah,

Aaron: I'm up to two injured. I don't have a third, but I think maybe I should try to avoid the third. The

John: community aspect of fitness is huge.  I've gone to Gold Gym before. I've walked around, I've been there, I've done the three hours trying to wait on the squat machine and trying, what am I gonna do today?

Oh, I'll do this. And you halfway through, yeah, it's hard. I guess I'll just, I just won't do the last set. I'm tired. And that's very common. We hear that a lot with people. It's, I've done the P nine X thing. Oh, I've tried that by myself. It's nobody there to, drive me and motivate me to, Go that to that last second, right? Yep. CrossFit did that. F 45 does that. You know you have your people you work out with the buddy that's next to you. And you don't wanna quit before they quit. And if you quit in the coach, you quit and they're like, Hey, come on John, you can do, two more seconds or do two more reps, or whatever it is.

That makes a huge difference. CrossFits a high intensity style workout, just like F 45, and I just love that.  CrossFit was somewhat inefficient because you would maybe do a. 10 minute or 12 minute high intensity workout. Then you'd have after you maybe did 30 minutes of, lifting, like of educational stuff like form Performance type stuff. But at 45, it's 45 minutes or 40 minutes of high intensity in the workout. with five minutes on the front end of, warming up that feeling, having the workout of I can't quit because there's every day around me looking at me. Sure they're not, but that's what you feel like.

It just drives you and it really makes that workout super effective.

Aaron: Alright, so you loved it. You'd done a drop in. What

John: next? I started looking at territories. I think I signed my first lease without even really having, I don't think I had a lawyer read it. I read through it and said, it looks good, and I signed it.

 And I still have that lease today. It's, okay. but there's things that I, should have put in there and, I signed the franchise agreements, paid some money for, the franchise fees and didn't know what I was doing. But I didn't care because I knew I was gonna do it.

Nothing was gonna stop me and I'm just gonna figure it out the way. Is this a side hustle? It was at the time. I'm still working my sales job.

Aaron: 

John: And that was the intention. 'cause that was the thing that the sales guy at F 45 said, oh yeah, five, 10 hours a week, that's all you need. You hire a general manager, you'll be fine.

 It took a lot more time. Mine. That, that I anticipated. But, we did the build out. My first two territories were the Sumter District location. I have in Queen End, and we were in negotiations on the Queen End location we were at, where we're currently at. And, they ended up going with another tenant, another, fitness concept.

And so I'm like, oh crap, I've got two franchisees. I gotta find another territory. So I quickly found a place at Northgate. It was super easy. I'll, do that one. And so we're going down the LOI with that. I get a call from my broker. Hey, the, other gym fell through at Queen End. You still want that location?

Like Yeah, I guess so. So I signed for a third franchise agreement.

Aaron: You had only one open at the time?

John: I didn't have any open. You didn't have any open? No, but now I have a third territory and I was out like, let's just add, let's just do a fourth one.  So I signed up for West Seattle, so I get Queen A opened up.

It got delayed. It was tough first opening.  I learned so much on the first opening and the second one was a little bit better. And by the time we got to the third one, which is self director, it was great. We opened up profitable. And then the pandemic hit two months later. Oh,  So we were shut down when that happened.

I called F 45, says, Hey, I can't open a West Seattle. Let's just cancel that agreement. They, said, okay. Five years later, I came back and resigned for that one. How long were you shut down? The two-week shutdown lasted three months. And then we open up with severe restrictions.  We could only have one person in the studio at a time with a trainer.

Then the second shutdown happened was what? That was the Delta variant or whatever it was. Another, three months shutdown.  One thing the government doesn't realize is you can't just shut down a member-based business. It's not like a light switch where you just turn it on off and it's, everything's backed the way it was.

You had to go back and resell everybody and all. There was like a two year period where you were either shut down or severely restricted. Fortunately, I had made enough money in sales that I had capital to survive it.  Because if I didn't have capital reserves, I would've went bankrupt. And I talked to people wanting to start business all the time. Like I was talking to this guy the other day, you want to do open up an F 45? what's your financial situation like? I'm just gonna borrow my 401k. what about reserves? Why haven't that? He says, you need to.

Hold slow down a bit because if you don't have any capital reserves, what? What happens when you have a $10,000 negative month? You can't make payroll. What are you gonna do? You gotta slow. I don't know, like Exactly.  As horrible as COVID was for my business. It made me a much better businessman.

I looked at every penny we spent. I totally understood why my parents bust over pennies. On expenses like this part's $2 cheaper. We should go with this one instead. And now I get it.  Every penny matters when, things are tight and I still. Try to operate my business.

Like things, this is really good business practice to, be frugal and not spend thrift.

Aaron: During COVID, I got really intimately acquainted with our cashflow forecast. In a way that I hadn't needed to be before or hadn't been before. I'm a little less so now, but I certainly pay more attention.

John: I developed this cashflow forecasting process 'cause it was like, I'm gonna. Shuffle this money around to Make payroll and sometimes it's like down to a few hundred dollars of margin and I still manage my, cash flow that way. Today, still I don't need to.

Aaron: Yeah,

John: man, it just makes me feel good knowing that the ins and outs of my cash flow.

Aaron: It creates a sense of security. I love looking at cashflow forecast and being able to look out a year. So today you have four locations about to open a fifth location. Yes. Coming back to West Seattle. When does that one open?

John: We're stuck in the lease negotiations we have been for 15 months. Believe it.

That's incredible. We have a lease fully negotiated, but in commercial leases there's these, exclusivity clauses on big shopping centers. Nine tenants had exclusivity clauses. We've got eight waivers signed, including from Fitness 19. They like competitor. They sure say, sure, we'll let F 45 in here.

 But Ross Trust less is not because they want concessions on the lease.

Aaron: It doesn't have to do with you.

John: No. So they're using it as a lever to get something outta the landlord. They've agreed to terms on it. Now that it's working through the legalese part of it, they'll are fighting out. The details.

Aaron: What brought you to EO and how long have you been in?

John: I've been in EO for almost two years now.  One of my locations is down in Puyallup and I'm in the chamber down there and I was talking to a friend of mine down there about, I think I really need a business coach – somebody like a CEO coach to help me be a better business leader.

John, you really should check out this place called EO Seattle. I'd never heard of it.

I was down in a happy hour event – a chamber event. And I felt that imposter syndrome we always talk about. And I felt lonely at the top. I couldn't talk to anybody about the things I was doing. I could, but nobody cared. Nobody understood. My wife didn't understand. She tried to, it was hard for her to relate to though.

Aaron: There's so much context that is lacking.

John: Correct. I didn't have my tribe. I was a fairly new business owner, like four years into it.

And I still didn't feel like I had my sea legs as a business owner. I just felt like I had so much more to learn. Of course, now that I’m in EO, I realize that everybody's got the same problems, right? And I'm like, okay, at least I'm not alone.

Aaron: Yeah, exactly.

John: And I feel better because of that.

Aaron: I've interviewed nine or 10 EO Seattle members, and the consistent theme is imposter syndrome, and feeling lonely.

There were things I couldn't share with other people. And then the other consistent theme is, oh, everybody feels like that. That's reassuring. 

John: It's reassuring in a disturbing kind of way, but yes.

Aaron: Exactly.

John: So everybody's faking it till they make it, huh?

Aaron:  I think what's true is that there are elements of the entrepreneurial journey aspect and aspects of being a CEO or a company owner where, at any given time, you're less sure and elements where you are more sure. And hopefully you evolve and mature over time.

John: I've had several businesses before, but I've never had employees until this one, like rental property companies that I've managed my properties in and stuff and I always thought, oh, I don't wanna hire people. That's scary. I don't know how to hire people. I don't wanna, I don't wanna have to run HR, run payroll. I don't know how to do that. That's all complicated stuff.  It's scary. The stuff you think is scary is like so easy. It's not that challenging, but it keeps so many people from taking that leap, somebody always asks me like, how do you start this? What made you think you could start this business? I see these, like construction guys that have no high school, no college education, starting a business. They can do it. Surely I can do it. It can't be that complicated.

Aaron:  I wonder if some of it too doesn't go back to growing up on a farm and just being raised with a sense of self-reliance.

John: It's possible. 

Aaron: I wasn't on a big farm, but I grew up in a rural area with a similar sort of sensibility. You can fix anything. You can build anything.  And so I actually didn't know any different.

John: When I look at society. immigrants coming in and they own businesses. And they're successful.

And then you see people raised in America and they have these nine to five jobs and they're like, I can't afford a house. what's the difference? The people that came to America, nobody's told 'em they couldn't do it, but our kids are told at school, no, you need to go do this job. You go to college. Business stuff's really hard.

We've trained society to believe that being a business owner is too hard and people coming to America as an immigrant, nobody tells 'em that. So they just do it and they're successful. It's, surprising you how many small businesses are owned by immigrants though.

Aaron: It's impressive.

John: Disproportionate compared to our society too.

Aaron: You can also see the same thing in the upper ranks, particularly of the The tech sector.

John: Absolutely. People aren't willing to take risks, aren't willing to take chances of their, fear.

Aaron: You have little kids.

John: I do – not little anymore. 16 and 18.

Aaron: 16 and 18. How have you taught them to be risk-takers. Has that been a focus and how have you gone about it?

John: Hopefully, by example. I saw some pictures of my kids. My son Logan, he is probably eight or nine years old with a sledgehammer knocking a wall out with me.

I try to be self-sufficient. I like being self-reliant. One of the traits I learned in the military was never ask your guys, your troops to do anything you wouldn't do. And it's even better for you if they can see you doing something before you ask them to do it like that. It's, Hey, go clean that toilet. There's five toilet. Let's clean 'em together.  That's totally different. Okay, no problem, sir. So I've coached in my classes. I know what that experience is like. I've done sales, the gym sales stuff. They know I know how to do that. I know how awkward those cold phone calls can be.

I can walk 'em through that 'cause I have that experience. At the same time, I'm also self-sufficient in other things. I like building stuff. I grew up on a farm. Building things with Dad, from welding to rebuilding motors, to building sheds, to whatever, right?

Recently we're replacing the flooring at one of my studios. I need to do it in a way where it's not disruptive. I hired a contractor. He says, “Okay, we need to shut down for two days while we do this.” I don't wanna shut down two days. Instead, my son and I have been removing and replacing these one meter square rubber tiles two rows at a time on the weekends.

We do it together. And so he's getting some work ethic out of it. He's seeing like some construction skills and we're talking about business at the same time, and so I just try to set the example. Even though I'm the CEO of a company, hard work is not beneath me and that anybody can do it. And that sometimes to be successful in business, you can't just sit in your defined role. You have to do what's needed to make it happen.

Aaron: What have you learned through EO? How has EO changed you?

John: I think EO has made me a better person. I never thought I would say that.

Growing up, the culture was boys don't cry. You don't talk about your emotions, you don't talk about politics, you don't talk about money. those are the things you didn't talk about. You could talk about religion 'cause I grew up in the Midwest and that was fine.

In fact, you were encouraged to.  I've never seen a shrink or psychologist or whatever you wanna call it. I've never talked about my feelings with really. Anybody being informed, talking about my feelings and how I feel and doing those reflections have really changed me to have those conversations, to be able to do that, feel comfortable and safe doing it.

I never thought that would be the impact, but it has been. It's made me a better business person too.  But I just feel like I'm better at expressing my feelings and reflecting on things now. It's just made me think differently.

Aaron:  I've had the same experience.  When you look back on your entrepreneurial journey and when you look back on the last couple of years, do you envision that things would've turned out differently if you hadn't joined EO or would've been the same, but the quality of experience might've been different?

John: I would've survived. My business would've been okay, but I think my business is better off because of the experience. We're getting to roll out employee ownership in the company. It's something I always wanted to do, but I had no idea how to do it. And I got several experience shares from my forum and from other people in EO about how they did it.

I got some great ideas. It really shortcut the process, made me feel more comfortable with it. Pros and cons of doing things different ways.  And that's certainly helped out a lot. And just gave me some connections that I wouldn't have had otherwise. And confidence be able to do that too.

I've only been in EO for a couple years and I'm a moderator and I'm on the board. And people are like, how'd you do that so fast? Nobody told me I couldn't. I just put my hand up I'm a dive in kind of guy.

One of the SAP co-chairs and I were talking to a prospect the other day and we were talking about the cost of EO. Was it worth it? And I said, “Look, if you think you're just gonna give us some money and you're gonna get business out, that's not gonna happen. You have to be all in. You have to carry your own bag. You have to put the time in, and if you do, you'll get the results out of it. It's the same with, pretty much anything in life.”

Aaron: Right

John: But I see a lot of EO members that go to forum and that's it. And I think they miss out on so much.

Aaron: That's been my experience.  I've been in EO coming up on 10 years. For the first seven years I was in a very close-knit forum.  And we were mostly just a forum.  Even when we went to chapter retreat, we would not infrequently have our own dinners off to the side and that sort of thing, and I didn't really go to other events. Until several people exited andthat forum disbanded. I joined another forum and started attending other events and it's an entirely different EO experience for me.

John:  It's been a great accelerator for me. When I first joined, I didn't know anybody.  I went to events. It took a while to get to know people, but now that I'm on the board I know the majority of people in EO. Not everybody, but I know a lot.

It's been so helpful for me to expand my network, expand my friendships, expand my relationships, become better at just different skills too.

Aaron: Thank you. I've enjoyed talking with you. Thanks for doing this. 

John: Yeah, it's been fun.