Daniel Stein (right) will be taking on the role of brand visionary as Gerry Henley (not pictured) takes over the operations of Special Strong as president.
“For us, we are serving God by creating opportunities for the adaptive needs population to live a more abundant life,” said Special Strong founder Daniel Stein. “I am obsessed with that.”
Franchising since 2020, fitness concept Special Strong operates six locations. Stein founded the brand in 2016 when he saw a need for special needs-focused fitness. Disabilities come in various forms, so the brand had to support anyone and everyone by adjusting to individual needs through specialized equipment.
It encountered its first challenge when growth was stagnant after launching franchise opportunities, though, so Stein knew he had to find someone to kickstart expansion. He found Gerry Henley, the brand’s new president, who saw this as a once-in-a-generation opportunity.
Gerry Henley.
“The world needs Special Strong desperately,” Henley said. “I’m all in, and I wouldn’t have done that with probably any other company.”
Related: Founder Shares Journey to Franchising Adaptive Fitness Brand, Special Strong
Henley’s been in the franchise development space for nearly two decades. He founded his coaching firm, Launch to Growth, when he wanted to make that his focus. Special Strong brought him back into the corporate side of franchising when Stein connected with him on LinkedIn, which he didn’t expect.
“I’m very careful who I connect with on LinkedIn since you never know when you’re going to get that sales pitch immediately,” said Henley. “We just started talking and I felt so compelled to learn more about his brand.”
Both Stein and Henley will take on new roles in the coming months. Stein is removing himself from operations to spread the word as the visionary and face of the brand. This means getting out in the world and publicly speaking about Special Strong, something he didn’t have time for previously.
“The best way I know to support Gerry is to get him visibility,” said Stein. “Now I’m really freed up to go be me and get the word out.”
Henley will do what he does best: “Franchising done right,” he said. Raising sales and bettering unit growth and operations will be Henley’s main goals as president. To meet these goals, not only will he streamline the brand to get franchisees profitable quickly, he’ll help find key hires to keep the infrastructure ready on the corporate side. As Stein generates ideas for the brand, Henley will try to make them happen.
Stein seeks to impact people through his work with the goal of bringing Special Strong to one million people with disabilities.
As for his own goals, Stein thinks customers, not units, are the key performance indicators. In terms of unit count, Stein hopes to have over 300 locations by that 10-year mark, but the people are more important. By 2034, he wants to serve one million athletes with mental, physical and cognitive challenges. Stein wants to serve 100,000 coaches, as he sees his vision as a two-way street.
According to the brand’s franchise disclosure document, the initial investment ranges between $79,000 to $96,200.
“We can really scale the brand and we have such a strong foundation,” said Stein. “Over the last three or four years, we’ve been growing very slow because we just really didn’t have the right team infrastructure until now.”