Community Before Profit | Building Crossfit Cornelius

Message from the author:

Every now and then, I revisit early episodes of the podcast and listen in amazement (when not cringing) at how far The Best of LKN has come in five years. It all began on May 2nd, 2020 with Episode 001: CrossFit Cornelius – Get to know owners Mike & Kristin Ratnofsky.

I’ve been saying since the beginning: my guests make this podcast successful. Conversations with founders like Mike & Kristin have taught me so much more about business and life than I could ever have expected.

It also seems I discover something new whenever I listen to these early episodes. Something I either missed the first time, or simply forgot. And so it was when I recently went all the way back to episode 001 of the podcast that I heard a different version of the conversation than the one I heard in 2020.

It’s taken me years to grasp only a basic understanding of why some businesses fail while others are massively successful. I’m still learning (clearly). But, what I heard this time around listening to Mike and Kristin truly astonished me.

I was listening to a masterclass on small business success, and I didn’t even realize it. It inspired me to write this blog post and share this newfound perspective with you.

I thought I launched this podcast back in Spring of 2020 to lift up local small business owners. Five years later, I can tell you dear reader that it is they who have lifted me up.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it for you.

~Jeff

All Great Businesses Start in a Garage

Picture this: a man stumbles through a CrossFit warmup, immediately barfs, and then lies in the grass outside the gym. Most people would call that a sign to try something else. But for Mike Ratnofsky, it was the moment he knew he was “all in.”

That unforgettable beginning would eventually lead Mike and his wife Kristin to build CrossFit Cornelius, a thriving fitness community that serves members across multiple programs. But their path to success wasn’t paved with business plans or venture capital—it was built one neighbor at a time, starting in their own garage.

Their story reveals a powerful truth about building community-driven businesses: the most successful ventures grow organically from genuine need rather than traditional business planning. The key is solving your own problem first, then naturally expanding when others want what you’ve built.

When Life Gets in the Way of Fitness Goals

Like many young parents, Mike and Kristin faced a common dilemma. Kristin had been teaching group exercise classes since she was 14 and became a personal trainer at 18. Mike was the type who believed he could “always push himself harder than anybody else could push him.” They were both committed to fitness—until life got complicated.

After having their second baby, getting to the gym became nearly impossible. The logistics of childcare, work schedules, and family responsibilities created barriers that even the most motivated fitness enthusiasts struggle to overcome. Their solution was practical: put a gym in their garage.

But here’s where many home gym stories end—and where theirs took an unexpected turn. As Kristin explains, “when you have a gym in your garage, you don’t push yourself quite as hard as when you’re around other people.” The equipment was there, but the accountability and energy of community weren’t.

This wasn’t just a personal fitness problem—it was a community problem waiting for a solution. They had inadvertently discovered what would become the foundation of their business: people need more than equipment to stay motivated. They need each other.

From Personal Solution to Community Magnet

Rather than abandoning their garage gym or forcing themselves to drive to a commercial facility, Mike and Kristin took a different approach. They started inviting people over.

“We started very organically,” Kristin recalls. “We just started inviting people over. Mike was a level one trainer at the time. And so we just kind of started having these little mini classes in our garage at our house.”

There was no grand business plan, no market research, no focus groups. Just two people who had solved their own problem and were willing to share the solution with neighbors and friends. Mike’s CrossFit certification meant he could safely lead others, but the real magic was in the informal, welcoming atmosphere they created.

What happened next surprised even them. Those “little mini classes” grew into something much bigger. “Those little mini classes turned into running two classes a day with 20 people each in them,” Kristin explains. “And we were like okay, we should probably look into starting a gym.”

The organic growth was driven by genuine enthusiasm rather than marketing campaigns. When people find something that works—especially something that fits into their real lives rather than their ideal lives—they tell their friends. Word spread through the community because the solution was authentic and the results were real.

Building Brick and Mortar While Preserving Garage Gym Culture

By 2013, Mike and Kristin faced a decision that many successful garage-based entrepreneurs encounter: how to scale without losing what made them special in the first place. The demand had clearly outgrown their home setup, but they wanted to preserve the community feel that had made their garage gym successful.

Their approach was methodical rather than rushed. They first moved to a small location in Cornelius, testing the waters of commercial space while maintaining their community-focused approach. Then in 2015, they took the bold step of building their current facility from the ground up.

Building from scratch allowed them to create exactly what their community needed rather than adapting to someone else’s vision of what a gym should be. This wasn’t about copying the latest fitness trends or creating an impressive facility to attract new members—it was about scaling their proven model while preserving its essential character.

The success of this approach is evident in their current membership base and the multiple programs they’ve developed to serve different needs within their community. They didn’t lose the personal touch that started in their garage; they found ways to replicate it at scale.

The Community-First Business Model

What makes CrossFit Cornelius different isn’t their equipment or their facility—it’s their unwavering focus on meeting people where they are rather than expecting people to adapt to their business model. This philosophy shows up in multiple ways throughout their operation.

When they recognized that their CrossFit program wasn’t serving everyone in their community optimally, they created Hybrid Fit. As Mike explains, “We knew that we had a pretty fair chunk of members that we knew we could serve better in another way. CrossFit’s awesome, but we knew that we could reach them better with a different model of programming.”

Rather than trying to force everyone into the same program, they developed alternatives that maintained their core values while serving different needs. Hybrid Fit removes the intimidation factor and heavy barbell work while preserving the community aspect and structured programming that people loved.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to temporarily close their physical location in March 2020, their community-first approach guided their rapid pivot. Within days, they had launched 30 different virtual offerings to meet their members wherever they were—whether that was at home with a full garage gym setup, with a single borrowed kettlebell, or trying to squeeze in a 10-minute workout between work and homeschooling responsibilities.

Most telling was their commitment to keeping their coaches on payroll during the closure. “One of our big commitments was we want to make sure that our coaches still have their salaries and are still getting paid,” Mike explains. This wasn’t just good business—it reflected their understanding that their community included their staff, not just their paying members.

Lessons for Building Your Own Community-Driven Business

The CrossFit Cornelius story offers several practical insights for entrepreneurs looking to build authentic, community-driven businesses:

Start by solving your own genuine problem. Mike and Kristin’s business succeeded because they first solved a real problem they personally experienced. This gave them credibility and authenticity that can’t be manufactured. They weren’t trying to convince people they needed something—they were sharing something that had already worked for them.

Allow organic growth rather than forcing rapid scaling. Their progression from garage classes to 40 people a day to commercial space happened naturally over time. They didn’t try to skip steps or grow faster than their community could support. This patient approach allowed them to maintain quality and culture while expanding.

Listen to your community’s evolving needs and adapt accordingly. Rather than sticking rigidly to their original CrossFit-only model, they developed new programs based on what their members actually needed. Hybrid Fit wasn’t a departure from their mission—it was an extension of it.

Invest in relationships and culture before focusing on facilities or equipment. Their success started in a garage with basic equipment because the real value was in the community they created, not the physical space. Even when they built their own facility, they designed it to support their culture rather than trying to let an impressive space substitute for genuine relationships.

Be willing to meet people where they are. Whether that meant creating less intimidating program options, offering virtual classes during a pandemic, or providing multiple workout lengths to fit different schedules, their willingness to adapt to their community’s real circumstances has been key to their sustained success.

The Real Foundation of Business Success

Looking back at Mike puking in the grass after that first CrossFit workout, it’s clear that the best businesses often start with someone being pushed outside their comfort zone and discovering they want more. But the real insight from Mike and Kristin’s journey goes deeper than just following your passion.

Their success came from recognizing that their personal solution to a common problem could serve others—and then having the patience and commitment to build community before profit. They didn’t start with a business plan that projected 300 members across multiple programs. They started with neighbors in their garage and let authentic relationships guide their growth.

In a world where entrepreneurs are often encouraged to “move fast and break things,” the CrossFit Cornelius story suggests a different approach: move thoughtfully and build things that last. Focus on solving real problems for real people, invest in genuine relationships, and let sustainable growth happen naturally.

The profit follows when you build something people truly need and want to be part of. Sometimes the best business strategy is simply being the kind of neighbor who’s willing to share what’s working in their garage.

What’s your garage gym moment? What problem are you uniquely positioned to solve for your community? The answer might be simpler—and more powerful—than you think.

Check out CrossFit Cornelius