The Company Next Door

Britton Frankel: DynoClimb (Deland, FL)

Ete AhPing Season 3 Episode 10

Meet Britt, owner of DynoClimb, located in Deland, Florida. DynoClimb is a unique climbing gym with a mission "to create a dynamic community of climbers, adventurers, and fitness enthusiasts." 

In this episode:

Growing Up

  • "Sketchy" climb at Galleons (1:17)
  • A 13 year-old cuffing and hemming suits (12:58)
  • A born entrepreneur: selling his family their own stuff (13:45)
  • A midwest minister father who was British and grew up in India (14:11)

How Climbing Helps

  • Blocking out distractions, disconnecting from outside world, focus, "trance," "zenned out" (2:36)
  • Functional fitness (3:21)
  • Excitement? Fear? Both. (3:37)
  • Empowerment (4:01)
  • Kids and confidence (4:31)
  • Decreasing overstimulation in kids on the spectrum, kids with ADHD (5:18)
  • Becoming a climbing community: it's a lifestyle. (6:09)
  • Teaches that Micro-details make the difference. (6:22)

Business Lessons From Climbing

  • Solving routes, solving problems through your strengths (7:02)
  • "Gravity is inevitable": "the master has failed many times more times than the apprentice has even tried." (7:47)
  • Beta: analyze your opportunities and move (9:02)
  • Micro-details: "It's that tiny little detail that are gonna push you to that success." (10:10)
  • Read your route ahead of time: Vizualization (27:18)

Building Dyno-Climb

  • Dinosaurs and a leap of faith (19:39)
  • A big issue: construction (29:16)
  • Finding the right market. And the winner is: Deland, Florida? (21:21)
  • Getting started: A business plan, research,  an SBA loan and family funding (25:36)
  • Can we meet the expectations? (31:43)
  • Operations: Getting those well-oiled systems going. (32:55)
  • Tying in with local businesses (33:50)
  • Michelle: Branding and risk mitigation (45:14)

COVID

  • The 2020 rollercoaster (35:21)
  • Humbling community support (35:45)
  • Leadership required (37:20)
  • Using transparency and confidence to gain trust (40:01)

Miscellaneous Good Stuff

  • "Thanks for the adventure, Daddy." (24:54)
  • Alex Honald: what the best climbers can do (27:55)
  • The kilter board is awesome. (46:51)
  • The "Breakfast Burrito" and "Something's Always Wrong, TN." (49:45)
  • Deland is one of the skydiving capitals of the world? (51:52)