In November 2015, Omar Yunes opened his first Quiznos in Mexico City. With a talent for business and the right franchise opportunity, he quickly grew his business, becoming the Best Franchisee in the World in 2015. He soon opened four more locations in Mexico.
The busy businessman wanted to stay in shape, so he joined 54D gym in Mexico City. The fitness center takes its name from its 54-day program. Creator and founder Rodrigo Garduño, a retired professional soccer player, established the program in 2012 with a results guarantee that if the customer attended the gym 54 days in a row and participated fully in the workouts, they would see results in the form of gains.
Omar Yunes and Rodrigo Garduño became friends while working out together and Yunes became a devoted customer. As his businesses grew though, he relocated to Miami, Florida, and found himself missing the workouts of 54D.
Exploring the Miami-Dade area, he found nothing like the program. Yunes contacted his friend and, knowing that Garduño had long wanted to expand to the US, pitched the idea of first doing so in Miami.
The collaboration occurred quickly, with Garduño hiring the experienced businessman as the CEO of the US operation. The move didn’t just provide him with an experienced franchise businessman, but with the ideal brand ambassador and influencer.
Because he had exercised at 54D for years, Yunes didn’t sound like an advertisement when he talked about the fitness center. He can and does speak from the heart about the importance of fitness to him and his experiences with work-life balance. That provided Garduño with added value for the hire.
Omar Yunes says that the initial Miami location opened in 2019. Late 2021 and early 2022 marked the launch of four new locations in the US – a second Miami spot, and one in Hallandale, Los Angeles, and New York City.
In its less than three years in the US, 54D landed celebrity clients, including athletes Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada, singers Juanes and Fonseca, and model Adriana Lima. The pricey 54-day program costs $3,900 and demands accountability.
Garduño’s leveraging of the super consumer strategy provided more benefits than just a ready-made brand ambassador. According to Harvard Business Review, hiring super consumers helps a business build consumer loyalty and product passion.
These devoted consumers of a product also develop greater empathy for a business’s customers than other hires would have. The super consumer as an employee also provides greater creativity, providing unique insights that can drive product evolution.
Hiring Yunes has certainly served Garduño’s growing company well. Traveling across the Mexican-US border no longer means missing any of your 54-day workouts.
