From Athlete to Entrepreneur: Sherman Merricks

Sherman Merricks, the founder and CEO of Dynasty CrossFit, has been serving the people of  Gainesville for almost 10 years.

Merricks discovered his passion for sports at a young age and continued to pursue athletics in college by playing basketball at Southeastern University. After graduation, he moved to Gainesville with his wife in 2005 where he worked in a corporate position for the University of Florida. He knew he wanted to eventually work in the athletics industry again, so he began looking for the next thing to do following collegiate basketball. He found CrossFit. 

In 2010, Dynasty CrossFit was established in his one-car garage. When he saw the small barrier to entry into the CrossFit industry, he knew he wanted to do it. Merricks didn’t have experience opening his own business, but he did have a passion for exercising. 

He owes his success at the gym to focusing less on marketing and more on the member experience.

“We started off with a really small community. We were doing things well and all of our members were really liking it, and they would tell their friends, so I really attribute it to us taking really good care of our members.” 

Merricks started his second business, LASSO Framework, a lead and sales system optimization company focused on helping businesses with sales and marketing in 2019. Although his gym closed for three months, LASSO has been able to gain multiple clients and help other gyms recover from the effects of COVID-19. 

With his collection of entrepreneurial and life experiences, Merricks has now become a community advocate in bringing awareness to sensitive issues on social media platforms and inspiring others to stay out of debt through his Matrimony and Money Podcast. 

About two times a week, Merrick goes live on Facebook and has real, honest conversations on topics others don’t normally speak about. He believes a lot of people need to hear both sides of a situation to fully open their eyes and grasp what they believe.

“The more real stories we can hear, the more it sort of broadens everyone’s horizons, and we can just get to know that like some of this stuff is real and some of it is made up.” 

Through his personal finance coaching services, Merrick helps others get out from underneath the debt that he too was once trapped by.  He tells his clients that anytime you pay off any debt, it’s a pay raise because you no longer owe anyone. He is almost debt-free from his $160,000 of school debt.

“Now I can see the end of the road, and I can’t wait.”

Listen to the 104th episode of WHOA GNV podcast to hear more about Sherman’s journey from athlete to entrepreneur.

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