Eliza Keegan’s Strategy for Growing Momentum Indoor Climbing from Utah to Bulgaria and Beyond

Anthony Codispoti (00:01)
Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispode and today’s guest is Eliza Keegan, chief executive officer of Momentum Indoor Climbing. They offer rope climbing and bouldering facilities across Utah, Texas, and Washington, along with yoga classes, training sessions, and fun monthly events.

Founded in 2004, they are renowned for their innovative approach to climbing gym design and inclusive community environment. Their mission is to inspire and empower climbers of all ages and skills, and they’ve been at the forefront of creating welcoming spaces for hobbyists and professionals alike. Eliza has been instrumental in Momentum’s growth since it launched, serving as executive vice president and program director before taking on her current role.

She also gained valuable experience with the Houston Dynamo, a major league soccer team where she managed youth programs and marketing. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. Imagine being able to give your employees free access to doctors, therapists, and prescription medications.

It’s even good for part-time employees. And here’s the fun part. The program actually puts more money into your employees’ pockets and the companies too. One recent client was able to increase net profits by $900 per employee per year. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the CEO of Momentum Indoor Climbing.

Eliza Keegan. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Eliza Keegan (01:58)
Hey Anthony, thanks so much for having me.

Anthony Codispoti (02:01)
So Eliza, you spent nearly two years with the Major League Soccer team, Houston Dynamo. Was this your first job right out of college?

Eliza Keegan (02:08)
It was. It started as a really low paying internship part time gig while I was still in college and after graduation evolved into a full time role.

Anthony Codispoti (02:21)
And what is it that you were doing there?

Eliza Keegan (02:24)
I started out in the marketing department and it was game day, halftime, know, entertainment on the field, directing groups. And then I got involved in the youth programming side and ended up in a management position pretty quickly managing the youth programs for Houston Dynamo.

Anthony Codispoti (02:46)
And what does that mean? What are the youth programs?

Eliza Keegan (02:49)
So most professional sports have a youth system and the Houston Dynamo had an academy ⁓ with a bunch of recreational programs as well as some competitive programs that really funnel kids from introductory programming all the way up to highly competitive, ⁓ almost like farm league, farm team league like programs with kids that are ⁓ potential candidates for professional.

teams down the line.

Anthony Codispoti (03:21)
So is it seen both as a way to ⁓ find new up and coming players for the system as well as like a marketing piece, hey, get kids fans of the game and the team early on.

Eliza Keegan (03:34)
Absolutely, there’s a community outreach piece to it. We at the time partnered with, I think, 13 local YMCAs to just introduce sports and soccer and bring programming to fringe communities around the Houston area. we had Pathways, know, soccer rather, is an older, very established sport with really clear pathways. And so there’s this, you know, grassroots

boots on the ground, funnel system, getting kids in, introduced to the sport, and then all of these different levels they can pursue if they’re interested, if they’re passionate, if they’re talented, and potentially be identified to be on a competitive team or even a team that funnels into the professional team.

Anthony Codispoti (04:25)
How did the work with the Houston Dynamo set you up for success that you would later have with momentum climbing?

Eliza Keegan (04:32)
Professional sports are so community driven. ⁓ They’re dynamic, they’re fast paced, and it was a really intense but really exciting ⁓ introduction to my career basically. I ⁓ think I was really, really set up to take on a role in the climbing industry because I had this background.

from a really established sport that had organization, that had pathways, that had really clear rules and procedures. And the climbing industry is a newer, younger sport. And as such, you know, doesn’t have a ton of organization or established pathways for kids. And so I heard Momentum was coming to Texas. ⁓ It was…

We’re a Salt Lake City based company and we had at the time three gyms in Salt Lake City and this was our first expansion outside of Utah. And I was living in Houston at the time, I was working for the Dynamo and I heard Momentum was coming to town and I was really excited at the opportunity to kind of take my skills and apply it to a new sport.

Anthony Codispoti (05:47)
Had you had any personal experience in the climbing space before?

Eliza Keegan (05:52)
Yeah, that’s a great question. You know, I climbed growing up at camps and, you know, recreationally growing up, but never seriously. And we moved around a lot and I lived in a lot of cities that weren’t mountain towns, mountain cities. And so climbing wasn’t really a popular activity in the areas that I lived in. Houston, you know, falls into that bucket. There are no mountains in Houston.

And so I’m ⁓ outdoorsy, I’m active, I play a lot of sports and I thought how cool is this that, you we don’t have any mountains here, but this company is bringing the mountains to Houston and I want to be a part of that.

Anthony Codispoti (06:38)
And so you applied, they liked you, they invited you in, in what role, what capacity to start with.

Eliza Keegan (06:44)
I started, we opened in July of 2017, our Katie, Texas location. It’s a full service rope gym. It’s 35,000 square feet, huge, beautiful state of the art rope facility. I came in as the youth program manager of that facility. And then a few months later, we opened our Siller Street location, which is a bouldering only facility in downtown Houston. And at that time I took over managing programs at both locations.

Anthony Codispoti (07:13)
Okay, so explain to me the difference between the two facilities, the full service versus the bouldering.

Eliza Keegan (07:19)
Yeah, that’s a great question. So there’s a couple of different disciplines in climbing. There’s three main disciplines that you see in the Olympics. It’s sport climbing and sport climbing, top rope climbing. That is climbing on ropes with harnesses and really tall walls. It’s what a lot of people think of when they think of, you know, traditional rock climbing. And there’s also bouldering, bouldering shorter walls anywhere between 13, 18 feet tall walls. You don’t need any equipment, no ropes. You climb up.

You hop down and there are really big squishy pads that you fall onto. And this has become incredibly popular the last couple of years ⁓ because it’s lower barriers of entry. You don’t need a partner. You don’t need this equipment and rope management knowledge. And ⁓ it’s also easier in some respects to build a bouldering facility because you don’t need 60 foot.

tall ceilings. So we’re seeing bouldering gyms pop up all over the country and it’s becoming a very social, popular way to exercise.

Anthony Codispoti (08:28)
And so going forward, how do you guys think about growth? Is it more bouldering facilities because there’s that, you know, lower startup costs?

Eliza Keegan (08:37)
Yeah, that’s a great question. Anytime we go into a city, we hope to bring all types of climbing to, you know, that community. And so if we go in with a bouldering gym, we will actively pursue opportunities to later put a rope gym in. And then vice versa, when we build a rope facility, we try and include bouldering in that facility as well.

Anthony Codispoti (09:04)
When you guys think about placing a location, how far out geographically does it typically pull people in? Like, you know, I’m thinking, a movie theater, ⁓ you know, they’ve got one maybe every, you know, 15 minutes from each other. ⁓ But something like bouldering, I’m going to guess you’re not going to have that same sort of density of locations.

Eliza Keegan (09:26)
Yeah, that’s a great question. when we opened, I think this is probably the best example, when we opened our Katie facility in Texas, ⁓ there at the time weren’t a ton and still aren’t a ton of full service climbing gyms in South Texas. And we had people driving two hours on the weekends regularly on the weekends to come to our facilities. And I would say

At our Houston gyms right now, we have people who regularly commute 45 minutes to an hour to our facilities multiple times a week.

Anthony Codispoti (10:03)
Wow. And so when somebody comes in, especially somebody who’s not, let’s start it from this viewpoint. For somebody who’s not familiar with what a climbing facility is, paint a picture for the listeners. What are they gonna experience? What options are gonna be available?

Eliza Keegan (10:20)
Yeah, absolutely. if you’re walking into a full service gym or rope gym, you’ve never climbed before, you’re going to walk in, you’re going to be greeted by our very friendly front desk who are generally psyched climbers themselves and can’t wait to tell you all about the facility, the sport, what our offerings are. But in our facilities, you’re going to walk in and you’re just, your jaw is going to drop because you’re going to be standing face to face with a 55 foot climbing wall.

and some of them feature arches, some of them feature prowls and monoliths, and it really is a breathtaking experience to walk into a full-service climbing gym and see people of all ages up on the wall, just absolutely sending.

Anthony Codispoti (11:06)
What were the terms that you use? Prowse and monoliths? What are those?

Eliza Keegan (11:09)
Yes, Prowse and Walls.

We use a lot of geological terms in climbing. You know, we’re all rock nerds and Momentum is in particular is a company that’s deeply rooted in American rock climbing history. And so we really try and create angles and features in our artificial climbing walls that resemble features of outdoor rock and outdoor crags. So

⁓ Those are just some terms we use to describe features of our climbing walls.

Anthony Codispoti (11:44)
Okay. So you came in, ⁓ started out heading up the youth program. ⁓ How did that youth program compare to what you were doing at Houston Dynamo? Or ⁓ maybe I should say, what did you pull from your experience at Houston Dynamo to apply to what you were doing at?

Eliza Keegan (12:04)
At the Houston Dynamo, I was overseeing anywhere from 80 to 100 coaches at a time, very part-time coaches who were dispersed throughout the greater Houston area and different tiers and levels of programming. So some very introductory entry-level programs and some competition-based programs. when I started with

Momentum, we had this great foundation of youth programs and that is in large thanks to our former CEO, Jeff Pedersen, who was a founder of the company, but he also was a competitive rock climbing coach for many years. And he really started our youth programs and our competitive program. something that we can get into later in the podcast is there’s been this balancing act in the industry.

between adult members, adult climbers and kids. And how do you balance those two in a gym space in the evenings during busy hours and how do you dedicate terrain to kids when you have adult members competing for the same space? And we had a leader of this company who really prioritized youth programs. And so I came in with a great foundation and was able to just

⁓ immediately jump in and build upon that foundation and say, hey, you know, we have this foundation, we have a framework of these pathways, but let’s fully develop these pathways so that there is a pathway for a kid to walk in who maybe doesn’t have any interest in competing, but wants to be a lifelong climber and they want to grow and develop their skills. Let’s create a pathway for them. And then let’s create a pathway for…

kids who want to compete and want to be on a national level circuit or compete in the Olympics one day. Let’s, you know, flesh out what that looks like.

Anthony Codispoti (14:08)
And I’m curious, because I think about what you were doing at the Houston Dynamo. And in my mind, it’s like, well, there’s soccer programs all over the place, right? That you could tap into, whether it’s through the Y, somebody’s school, you know, a different club that’s set up. But what are those pathways look like in the climbing community? Because I didn’t grow up with, you know, any access to climbing. live in kind of like Houston, like

I lived in Ohio, which is very flat. There were no mountains. There were no climbing facilities. Like, how do you generate that interest?

Eliza Keegan (14:41)
That is such a great question. it’s such a good question because in so many popular sports in the US, that’s really governed by the national governing body of that sport. So US soccer and climbing, it’s USA climbing. And USA climbing has done amazing work over the past decade to ⁓ create pathways and create ⁓

competition programs for kids. But at the time I came in, ⁓ there wasn’t a framework. There wasn’t a framework, there weren’t resources. And so I utilized the framework and the resources I had from the soccer industry and from the Houston Dynamo to build in-house. still, still we’re constantly developing and changing what this

USA climbing pathway looks like for kids, what the competition pathway looks like for kids. But at least for momentum, we for the last, I would say eight to 10 years have had a pretty consistent program that does provide opportunities to grow, to compete, to learn, and to move up in the system.

Anthony Codispoti (16:02)
And how do you let kids know that this is even an option? Are you tying into schools or other sports programs or how are you getting in front of them and their parents?

Eliza Keegan (16:12)
We do a lot of outreach programming and we just naturally have seen a lot of kids ⁓ come in through gymnastics, through cheerleading. There’s a lot of overlap, it seems, between some other sports. ⁓ And we’ve had a lot of kids who maybe lose interest in one activity or they see climbing on YouTube or Instagram or they hear about it from their friend in school and they want to come try it out.

That’s been a great way for kids to learn about climbing, come and get involved. have birthday parties, and we have really introductory programming that’s once a week, it’s two hours, minimal commitment, and the goal is to just come teach some fundamental basic skills and to have fun. And from there, if kids wanna take it further, there’s pathways for them to do that.

Anthony Codispoti (17:06)
So tell me if I’ve got this right here. You started with Momentum back in middle of 2017, youth program manager, worked your way up pretty quickly, a regional program manager, then program director in 19, executive VP in 2023, and then earlier this year, 2025, CEO. This is quite an accelerated growth path in the company.

Eliza Keegan (17:14)
Thank

Anthony Codispoti (17:34)
Which of these transitions have you found, did you find to be most challenging?

Eliza Keegan (17:40)
Yeah, that’s a great question. You know, Anthony, life is so funny and you end up on these really unexpected trajectories. And if you would have told me five years ago, I’d be in this seat. I wouldn’t have believed you, but I’m really grateful to have had the opportunities I’ve had and to be in this role now and the transition from being a department director.

to ⁓ an executive leader was definitely the most challenging. I think you’re going from being an expert in a field and having a specific lane and ⁓ an attention to detail and a dedicated team staff that you’re hands on managing to shifting to executive leadership where you have to understand all of the lanes.

You have to shift your leadership from day-to-day hands-on management to leading with vision and trust and delegation. And it’s a big shift.

Anthony Codispoti (18:51)
Did you have any formal coaching or mentors that taught you how to become a leader? So think a lot of times what happens in business is we see people performing really well in their role and think, okay, let’s just move them up into a manager, an executive position, and they’ll continue that success. But it takes a different set of skills to be able to perform and manage

employees at that point and if you don’t have experience in it, ⁓ not everybody moves into it very elegantly.

Eliza Keegan (19:29)
Absolutely, absolutely. I’ve been so fortunate to have had incredible mentors over the last 10, 15 years in all of my roles and across the different companies I’ve worked for. I’ve also had bosses who have had confidence in me and that’s been a huge support. And I think…

You know, I’ve tried to have consistent, a consistent approach to leadership throughout all of my roles. And I think my leadership style and my approach has been really applicable in every hat that I’ve worn for this company and every hat that I wore for the Dynamo. ⁓ I think that that approach is just, you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room. You don’t have to know it all. You just have to show up. You have to show up.

And you have to be there for your team. And I mean, maybe if you want to get a little further into the weeds, I had some really great advice from a mentor one time who said the core function of your role as a leader of a team is to let your team know it’s going to be OK. It’s going to be OK. That is.

the core function of you as a leader to let people know it’s gonna be okay. Whatever problem we face, whatever circumstance, there’s always a solution we can figure out and we’re gonna find a solution and it’s gonna be okay.

Anthony Codispoti (21:09)
That’s great advice. And how do you communicate that?

Eliza Keegan (21:14)
Yeah, I think I have a lot of confidence in my team and I have a lot of optimism that there is always a solution. And so we approach difficult circumstances. We approach problems with that mindset.

Anthony Codispoti (21:30)
You know, with a company of your size that continues to grow, ⁓ I’m going to guess I hear in most labor markets, it’s tough to find good folks. It’s maybe sometimes even tougher to hold on to good folks. What have you guys tried and found success with when it comes to recruiting and retention?

Eliza Keegan (21:50)
We are very fortunate that we work for a climbing company. And most of the people who work for Momentum, from the folks at our headquarters all the way down to our front desk staff, they are lifelong climbers. Climbing is part of their identity, it’s part of their lifestyle. And so we have this huge luxury, I would say, ⁓ as it pertains to staffing, that people want to work.

for momentum because it’s something they’re excited about. It’s something they’re passionate about. And it’s something they genuinely want to share with other people. So, you know, it’s a really easy sell to go and work for something you’re really passionate about. But then we, you know, are faced with how do we create a culture and a working environment where people can meaningfully contribute, but

also have that work-life balance and also get to prioritize the things that are important to them, specifically to our industry. It’s outdoor recreation, it’s climbing, it’s making the time in your personal life to be able to climb and train and go on climbing trips and go camping and go mountain biking. ⁓ And so we definitely have a balancing act ⁓ internally of just having a space where people can produce, but also find that work-life balance.

Anthony Codispoti (23:19)
What do you think is driving the popularity in climbing right now?

Eliza Keegan (23:25)
It’s incredibly social. And I think we’re seeing this ⁓ bigger desire, bigger interest in health and wellness kind of across multiple generations. We’re seeing that right now. We’re seeing people investing more money into their health, their experience, their experiences. ⁓ And I think climbing is a way to interact.

and be social, but also be participating in this healthy lifestyle. And, you there are a lot of people who get interested in climbing and it’s their weekly gym session, it’s their social hour, it’s where they go with their friends to exercise, to be active. And then there’s this other category of climbers who take the sport really seriously and are in the gym sometimes three, four, five times a week training because of their personal goals.

Anthony Codispoti (24:25)
Is there a recent innovation or gym feature you guys have introduced that you’re particularly proud of?

Eliza Keegan (24:34)
We have, we opened in December of 2024. So just this past winter, we opened a 47,000 square foot state of the art climbing gym in Salt Lake City. And this gym is the first of its kind in the United States ⁓ because every single climbing T-nut, it’s called a T-nut, I’m gonna have to get a little in the weeds so I can explain this. Our climbing walls have, if you go into a climbing gym, you’ll see there are all these little holes.

Anthony Codispoti (24:56)
What Yeah, what is that?

Eliza Keegan (25:04)
on the wall and that’s where we screw our climbing holds into. And we call those T-nuts and our route setters can, you know, make any sort of combination of holds to create a route, to create a boulder and they screw the holds into these T-nuts. We put LEDs into every single, it’s tens of thousands of T-nuts, every single T-nut in our newest gym.

Anthony Codispoti (25:30)
even

the ones that aren’t being utilized at that moment. Okay.

Eliza Keegan (25:32)
even the ones that aren’t being

used. And we have an app that allows us to put translucent holds on the wall in as high a density as we want. And it has the capability of lighting up a multitude of routes, kind of an infinite amount of routes in different colors.

Anthony Codispoti (25:52)
that’s fun. ⁓ I thought you were going to say that you like put people’s names or faces and patterns with using those lights. Any thoughts to do that? Or is that just silly? You know, you had a much more functional purpose in mind.

Eliza Keegan (25:57)
No.

Thank

Thanks.

We have a very climbing specific intention behind this technology. ⁓ did, we were laughing, we opened this gym right around Christmas and we were laughing that, you know, if you’ve ever gone through the drive through Christmas light where you turn on the radio, laughing that we could have some dancing reindeers up on the wall with some cute Christmas music. But this technology we hope will revolutionize the sport of climbing and how

people interact ⁓ because it’s app-based, it’s more technology forward, and it also allows us, you only have so much space on a wall, any given wall to set routes. This allows us to set higher density but create more routes and problems out of the density.

Anthony Codispoti (26:52)
So is the idea that you can put what do you call that what you put into the tea holes the pegs or the whole but what is it that you’re screwing in? What’s that called? Climbing holds. Okay. So is the idea that you put like a climbing hold basically in every single ⁓ tea hole there or and then you can light up the path or or okay. Okay. Got it. So every tea hole is filled with a climbing hold.

Eliza Keegan (26:57)
holes.

Yes. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (27:21)
And am I getting the lingo right now? I’m on the right track. Okay.

Eliza Keegan (27:25)
You’re on the right track. You’re getting it. Yeah, you’re getting it.

Anybody who is familiar with climbing will know that training boards are really popular right now. Training boards, they’re normally 12 foot by 12 foot boards that are app based that have holes that light up. Great training system. Really, really popular right now. This is a similar application to that. It’s just on a much larger scale. Exactly. Exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (27:50)
on a grand scale. Okay, so

I’ve got two sons, one’s nine, one’s 11. And they’ve never climbed before. I do have my youngest boy actually literally climbs the walls at home. He tries to think that he’s Spider-Man. And if I want to introduce them to something like this that they’ve never done before, what would it look like bringing them in for the first time?

Eliza Keegan (28:15)
That’s a great question. Anthony, I’ve got to tell you, every single day we have parents coming into our gyms saying, my kid is climbing the refrigerator. My kid is climbing the bookshelf. And so I figured they would like this every single day. Yeah, generally you walk into a gym and depending on if it’s full service or if it’s bouldering, most gyms, all of our gyms have dedicated youth areas. give a

We give an orientation, you have to sign a waiver. Climbing is inherently dangerous. So there’s quite a few risk acknowledgements that you’ll have to do when you enter any climbing gym, whether it’s ours or somebody else’s. ⁓ And then there’s an orientation video that you’ll be required to watch. And then the front desk staff will give you a tour of the facility. And then they’ll show you.

what you can do without any formal instruction, which is generally bouldering or the youth only areas ⁓ and provide you the shoes, the equipment you need to do that. If you wanted to take them rope climbing, there would have to be a learn to belay class or some sort of formal orientation and training to give you the rope management and belay skills you need to belay them on the

Anthony Codispoti (29:31)
And so as a parent, would it be my role to be the belayer? Is that the right term? Okay.

Eliza Keegan (29:37)
Yes, yes, and that’s

what we would prefer because climbing is multi-generational. You know, one of the most rewarding things for me to see when I walk in the gym is a grandparent climbing with their grandchild. We see it all the time. It’s really cool. But yeah, climbing is so unique. You can have a five-year-old climbing next to a 25-year-old climbing next to 65-year-old. We see that all the time.

So we want the parent to be engaged, be involved if you don’t want to be engaged and involved, if you’re not interested in learning climbing or you just need an after school activity for your kid. Most gyms have programs where you can drop them off and they’re in a class with classmates and a certified instructor who’s going to teach them and belay them.

Anthony Codispoti (30:23)
Okay. What does the future look like for momentum indoor climbing? More locations, maybe redoing some of the existing locations, new states, new cities. What’s on tap?

Eliza Keegan (30:39)
We have big plans. We’ve got huge plans. We are on a huge growth trajectory right now. It’s very exciting. ⁓ We went about a seven-year period with no new facilities. Last December, we opened this new full-service rope gym. We’re about to open our first ever micro gym concept, which is ⁓ first of its kind for us. It’s a really small, compact climbing and climbing specific training facility.

in downtown Salt Lake. ⁓ And that’s really exciting. And we’ve got a couple more locations coming in Houston, Texas. And we are looking all over the country, as well as in Europe and Asia for expansion opportunities. We have two gyms in Bulgaria right now. We have one location and we are about a month away from opening our second location in Bulgaria.

Anthony Codispoti (31:28)
already, right now, today.

Okay. Now, you know, I talk with a lot of, um, restaurant groups, uh, that, know, think about growth. Some of them use a franchise system. Some of them are corporate owned, generally speaking, they kind of have one or two or three hubs, geographical hubs that they sort of build out from is, and it’s a little bit different there because they’ve got, you know, um, raw materials, you know, uh, their food, their ingredients that they want to be able to have the supply chain for.

Obviously that’s not a restriction here, but I’m curious the thought process behind your growth and you know, it seems like ⁓ maybe like we’re gonna get the state of Texas down first before we go to another state, but I’m not hearing that I’m hearing yeah, we’ve got plans here. We’re already in Bulgaria. We’re looking at Asia other places in Europe. You guys are kind of all over the place. Talk to me about the thought process here.

Eliza Keegan (32:29)
There is so much opportunity and there’s so much opportunity still in major markets across the world. And so I think our goal is to definitely build in our existing hubs, if you will. So Houston, we have two locations already and we have plans for many more locations in Houston. ⁓ And there’s a ton of opportunity in Houston being one of the largest cities in the US, but there are really

great opportunities across the world because we’re seeing, think that the industry at its origin started by building gyms in mountain towns and mountain communities where there’s climbing, there’s knowledge of climbing, there’s outdoor enthusiasts. And what we’ve caught onto and what people are catching onto is there is just as much opportunity in major cities that are

removed from the mountains as there are these mountain towns. And there’s maybe even ⁓ an elevated edge to bringing the mountains to people who can’t access them. And if your only option is to go to the climbing gym versus here in Salt Lake, you can go to the climbing gym, but most of the year you can also just go out to the mountains and go climbing. think there’s just so much opportunity in major cities across the world to…

bring a climbing gym and the biggest challenge that has prevented the growth and the saturation of the market has been real estate for sure.

Anthony Codispoti (34:06)
And do you see these micro gyms as being what you want to lead with in some of these other markets? Or it’s just it’s not an either or it’s an and.

Eliza Keegan (34:16)
The micro gyms are a solution, a solution to the real estate challenge. ⁓ You need ⁓ generally a really large footprint to have a climbing gym. And because we’re a membership model, you we can’t pay a ton of rent. ⁓ It’s just not our business model. And so if you want to get into these urban areas, these cities with high density where the real estate is really competitive, there are not a lot of

options and it’s really expensive. The micro gyms are a great solution to be able to get your foot into that city, that community, ⁓ without undertaking, you know, sometimes a 10 million dollar project.

Anthony Codispoti (35:00)
You said you’re a membership model. So this is not the kind of thing where as a one-off, I would be able to come in and just try it out. I need to sign up for a monthly recurring membership.

Eliza Keegan (35:12)
We, you absolutely can just walk in by a day pass, use it one time. Absolutely can do that. You know, programs, birthday parties, day passes, punch passes, but the bulk about 70 to 80 % of our revenue does come from our memberships, people who are paying a monthly ⁓ amount to use our facilities on an unlimited basis. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (35:37)
Unlimited.

And what are hours typically like?

Eliza Keegan (35:42)
6 a.m. to 11 p.m. generally hours. It’s a long day and our facilities, all of our facilities currently have a gym and a yoga studio. And so, you know, we see people who, like I said, are replacing their weekly, you know, exercise weekly activity with climbing, specifically climbing. That is their fitness. That is their exercise. But we also have these gym amenities that people

Anthony Codispoti (35:44)
Holy cow, that’s a long day.

Eliza Keegan (36:11)
used to supplement their training or they just use our facilities to come and work out.

Anthony Codispoti (36:17)
When you say gym amenities, so like free weights or like equipment?

Eliza Keegan (36:22)
Weights, free weights, we have a dedicated cardio room in most of our locations and then we have a ⁓ pretty ⁓ robust set of free weights and fitness equipment, but we also have climbing specific training.

Anthony Codispoti (36:41)
I want to shift gears now, Eliza, and I’d love to hear from you about a serious challenge that you’ve overcome in your life. Something personal or professional. What was that? How’d you get through it? What’d you learn?

Eliza Keegan (36:55)
I think for me, the elephant in the room at all times now is stepping into this role and my age. I’m quite young to be a CEO of a company of this scale and the transition was really intimidating and I find myself weekly, maybe sometimes daily in…

conversations are faced with decisions that are new and something I haven’t experienced before. And that absolutely is the biggest challenge for me right now. It’s just drinking from a fire hose and getting up to speed and being confident in the decisions I’m making for this company and the way that I’m leading this company.

I have an amazing team and I have amazing mentors, but the amount of responsibility and the amount of decisions that I face on a daily basis, it’s a lot. It’s a lot. it’s balancing, you know, being brave and taking chances with utilizing experts and resources and leaning on your team.

and it’s definitely, it’s been a crazy year.

Anthony Codispoti (38:30)
⁓ Still in your 20s, now in your early 30s? Okay.

Eliza Keegan (38:34)
I am in my thirties. I am in my

early thirties and I’m actually about to turn 33 in two weeks. And, you know, definitely one of the younger CEOs you’ve probably talked to.

Anthony Codispoti (38:48)
It’s true. It’s true. ⁓ And so does that ever, I want to explore sort of the, ⁓ what I’ll call the imposter syndrome component that I’ve heard you touch on in a moment. But first I want to dive into, does it ever, do you ever get pushed back from other people because of your age, whether it’s internally or working externally with partners or vendors?

⁓ And how do you deal with that?

Eliza Keegan (39:21)
All the time, all the time. An interesting dynamic for me at Momentum is that, you know, I’ve ascended to this role and now I’m managing people that have been my peers for many years. And that dynamic is a challenging one because you’re, you know, you’re stepping into this role with people.

who used to be your peers that now report to you and have to take direction for you. And I think it’s been this huge trust exercise for all of us. And as it applies internally and externally, when I show up for meetings and I walk into a room all the time and people aren’t expecting me to be what’s walking through the door.

Anthony Codispoti (40:09)
They think

you’re the assistant for who’s coming, right? Yeah.

Eliza Keegan (40:12)
All the time, all

the time. I get that all the time. And I’m on construction sites a lot. And, you know, I’m in lease negotiations. I’m on construction sites. And I was on a construction site at 7.30 this morning and walked in and people are like, who are you? What can we do for you? But I think, I think in internally and externally, it’s just demonstrating.

Anthony Codispoti (40:30)
Ha ha.

Eliza Keegan (40:41)
inserting yourself in the conversations and saying, hey, like I need to be here. I need to be involved in this conversation. I’m gonna listen. I’m gonna contribute. And I also think it’s just showing up and being consistent and with time, you can always win people over and you can always build trust and you can always demonstrate that you’re capable.

Anthony Codispoti (41:06)
What’s the craziest, most obtuse thing that somebody has said to you when realizing who you were?

Eliza Keegan (41:17)
The most absurd, I have been introduced to a superior and they have asked me why I’m not having babies and why I am spending this much time working. Why I’ve chosen a career over having a family. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (41:43)
Did this come from an older man?

Eliza Keegan (41:46)
Sure did. Sure did.

Anthony Codispoti (41:48)
And

this had to have been recently. I would like to, when I hear a story like that, I almost want to think, ⁓ you know, the 1960s, you know, what a time that was. But this was clearly very recent because you’ve only been in this role for less than a year.

Eliza Keegan (42:05)
have had a surprising amount of instances where people have asked me about childbearing. Surprising amount. you know, it’s something that’s unique to being a woman and unique to being a female professional. Right, right. Who is definitely prioritizing her career right now, but.

Anthony Codispoti (42:16)
Really?

A young woman especially probably. Yeah.

Eliza Keegan (42:34)
every single day it seems like people are judging your choices and there’s always this kind of, whether it’s spoken or unspoken, know, question or, you know, looming question of, you know, family versus career.

Anthony Codispoti (42:56)
Do you find that most of that is coming from men? Is there a percentage that comes from women who are sort of casting the same judgment on you?

Eliza Keegan (43:06)
I think it’s across the board. Definitely, definitely. And you know, I think it’s a result to this country maybe does not prioritize childcare and ⁓ mothers in industries the way that we see other countries, you know, it’s.

Anthony Codispoti (43:08)
It’s both. Wow, it’s fascinating.

Eliza Keegan (43:36)
It’s just like Bulgaria, for example. I spent a lot of time there ⁓ because we have gyms there. We have a majority owner who is out of Bulgaria. Mothers there have two years, up to two years off from work and they’re guaranteed their job when they come back from work. And so it’s just a different expectation. It’s a different expectation that you can have kids, you can dedicate time to your kids. You also have all of these resources and this financial package from the government.

Anthony Codispoti (43:52)
Wow.

Yeah.

Eliza Keegan (44:05)
to be able to have children and still be guaranteed a job two years from when you leave. And in the United States, I I found myself when I stepped into this role, scrambling because we had a pregnant employee at HQ for the first time and we didn’t even have a maternity package or policy. And so many companies, you know, it’s up to the discretion of the company and…

Some companies don’t even have a policy. And that’s been a really interesting thing in my career. I know we just went on a totally different tangent, but it’s been a really interesting ⁓ part of my time here to ⁓ assess that and consider what momentum could be doing better to support families and to support women. So we have a lot of young people who work for us who are… ⁓

basically grown up with the past decade and people are reaching that point in time where they’re considering having kids, having families and what is our company doing to enable them to do that and feel supported through that process.

Anthony Codispoti (45:15)
Big questions to ask and try to find answers to huh for people that are listening that Hmm now let me phrase this a little bit differently for some of those folks who if you have cast that judgment upon you ⁓ Who’ve said inappropriate things or have just sort of given that energy and that look about you know, who are you? Who do you think you are? What kind of constructive?

Eliza Keegan (45:19)
For sure.

Anthony Codispoti (45:44)
coaching can we maybe offer to folks like that so that they can find themselves in a better position to to be a better human being going forward?

Eliza Keegan (45:58)
That’s a great question.

I think people are just…

People are just capable of doing whatever they want to do and their choices are their own. And, you know, I mean, I don’t know, Anthony, mind your business. I don’t know. I, it’s.

Anthony Codispoti (46:24)
Bite your tongue,

keep those thoughts to yourself. That’s the message here.

Eliza Keegan (46:27)
Totally. mean, I have been in those scenarios so frequently over my entire career. I mean, working in Major League Soccer, I was the only female in an office of like 50 guys. And I was young, I was early 20s, and all these guys are between, you know, 30 and 60 years old. I’ve seen it all. I have heard it all. It’s been a really ever-present

thing for me throughout my entire career. And, you know, for me, I can handle it. It’s fine. I’m so used to it. It doesn’t affect me, but I think people should have the perspective and the self-awareness that other people may not take to it so kindly and other people are impressionable. people should just have more self-awareness of the comments they make.

how that can make somebody feel.

Anthony Codispoti (47:26)
Yeah. Well, I’m glad that, ⁓ you’ve been able to handle it, but I’m going to disagree with you on one thing. It’s not fine. ⁓ so I think that’s, that’s an overriding message that I think we want people to hear when it comes to, you know, that’s those sorts of conversations and comments. But I also now want to look at this from the angle of, right. You recognize that you’re young. You recognize that you’re going into a lot of experiences that are brand new to you.

Eliza Keegan (47:34)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (47:53)
And you’re already, like you said, drinking from a fire hose. And so you’ve got those moments of self doubt that come in regularly. And then on top of that, you’ve got other people with these comments with the, know, that, that can’t help with that. so I tell us Eliza, what have you done to be able to, I don’t know, sort of soldier up to be able to, to put the armor up or figure out a way to go through as you’re.

dealing with all these uncertainties and trying to figure out and navigate new situations in this position of leadership.

Eliza Keegan (48:29)
Bravery, bravery really. I mean, you’ve got to be brave and you’ve got to take chances. And like I said, you know, I know I’m not the smartest or the most experienced person in the room, but I am not afraid and I’m not afraid to take chances. I’m not afraid to insert myself into a conversation. And I know that whatever I don’t know, I’m capable of learning. And I think a good analogy is, you you brought up imposter syndrome and that’s

that’s so prevalent in our industry. Even across our own employees, know, a lot of people feel like to work at a climbing gym, to work for a climbing company, you need to be a really good climber and you need to climb hard and climb hard grades. you know, while it is, I think to an extent important to be passionate about the sport and

participate in the sport. Climbing, you we preach climbing is for everybody and it looks different for people. The benefits and the experience they get from climbing, it looks different for different people. And, you know, I’ve had to overcome my own imposter syndrome in this industry because while I climb a lot and climbing is, you know, one of my biggest passions.

I’m not a professional athlete. I’m not a professional climber. And I can’t hang climbing with a bunch of our employees. And it’s been years of just understanding and not only understanding, but also appreciating. Like I am so many of our users and so many of our customers. I’m this like middle of the road climber who loves to do it and does it with my friends, my partner.

And it’s this really meaningful, important thing in my life. And that’s so relatable to a huge percentage of our users, our members. so just, I think, recognizing that you can contribute and you can add value and having the confidence to do so, even if from the outside you look like you’re young and underqualified and not capable.

Anthony Codispoti (50:57)
I ⁓ think that was really good. ⁓ Do you think that you were born sort of with this? I’m not going to call it fearless because I think that’s the wrong message to send. ⁓ what people need to hear is that we all experience fear. It’s just not letting that fear control you and define you. It’s figuring out a way to go forward in spite of the fear.

And so I’m curious to hear Eliza, do you feel like you were sort of born with this tendency? Were you, I don’t know, raised like in a way that sort of like delivered it into you? Were there defining moments growing up that really infused you with the spirit? Do you have any sense of where that comes from?

Eliza Keegan (51:52)
That’s a really good question, Anthony. I am so fortunate to have parents who have from birth told me, you’re capable and take accountability. Take accountability, take ownership, own your thoughts, own your decisions, own your mistakes, be accountable, be brave, and you’re capable. And then throughout my career, I’ve been so fortunate to have mentors and just people come into my life and say, hey, you’re capable.

And there’s always a solution. There’s always a solution. You just need to find it. And I think that mindset has really helped shape ⁓ my, like I said, my leadership style, my approach, but also my opinion of myself. ⁓ Just, you know, there’s always a solution to be found and I am capable, you know.

Anthony Codispoti (52:51)
Putting all humility aside, Eliza, how would you characterize your superpower?

Eliza Keegan (52:55)
Yeah, that’s a great question. I, I do think and this is, this has just been practiced over time. I do think my superpower is just kind of remaining calm in the storm and being consistent, just being consistent and

showing up consistently every single day, regardless of what comes down the pipe, what we face. ⁓ I think it’s really important to be rock solid for your team and to be the source of optimism and support and teamwork for the crew that you’re leading.

Anthony Codispoti (53:45)
Do you have a favorite book or a podcast that’s been helpful for you? might like to recommend to our listeners.

Eliza Keegan (53:53)
Yeah, absolutely. I do. And I think it touches on so many things we talked about today. But Yvonne Chouinard, who is the founder of Patagonia, who is also a legendary rock climber, he wrote this great book that I recommend to everybody that’s called Let My People Go Surfing. And it’s part memoir, but it’s part business philosophy. He, he

talks in this book about ethical leadership and ethical business practices, which is really important for all industries, for all companies to be having that conversation, to be thinking of how can we reduce our footprint? How can we contribute less waste? How can we ⁓ have the best ethical practices and culture?

but he also talks a lot about building a culture of trust and flexibility so that people can find balance in their life. And like we talked about earlier, I employ climbers. I’m sitting in an office filled with climbers right now and they want balance. They want to recreate. They want to pursue their passions ⁓ outdoors and…

creating a work culture where people can be held accountable and produce but also find this work-life balance is flexibility. I think it all comes down to trust and ⁓ having supportive systems. But that would be my recommendation. It’s a great read.

Anthony Codispoti (55:38)
What kind of daily habits or practices do you have that help you get you started and keep you on track?

Eliza Keegan (55:46)
I wake up at 5 a.m. every morning. I cannot tell you the last time I’ve used an alarm clock. I don’t know what is wrong with me, but come 5, 5 15, I’m awake. The morning is really important for me to, you know, drink my coffee, kind of decompress and ease into the day. I normally exercise first thing in the morning. I find that exercising before I go to work really helps me.

you know, be calm, cool and collected throughout the day. So waking up early, having my coffee routine, exercising before I get into work, those are the most important things to start my day off on the right note. And, you know, I travel a lot for work. And so there’s, there’s not a lot of control over schedule or flexibility, but at a minimum, I try and try and exercise and have an hour for my coffee every morning.

Anthony Codispoti (56:47)
Sometimes ⁓ mistakes happen in the moment. We later look back on with appreciation as some of our greatest teachers. Can you think of a career moment for you early on that seemed like a setback at the time, but actually helped to propel you forward?

Eliza Keegan (57:09)
Yeah, yeah, I’ll be I’ll be very vulnerable with this one. My first week of work with Momentum, I was working crazy hours. We’re trying to get this gym open. We’re working throughout the night, getting the gym equipment set up, the furniture built. And I’m I’m exhausted. And I’m in I’m in Houston. I’m in Texas. And I get a call from my boss at the time.

there had been an accident at one of our gyms in Salt Lake in one of our youth programs. And it was a pretty severe accident and it was a youth program participant who ⁓ incorrectly was belaying somebody that led to a fall and an injury. And I remember going out, I was at the gym at the time and it was the evening and I went out to my car.

and I just had a breakdown and I sobbed and I said, you know, I am not in the business of hurting children or, you know, having anybody get injured. And what am I doing? What am I walking into? Because climbing is inherently dangerous. And unfortunately, injuries happen all the time. Mistakes in climbing happen all the time, whether it’s in gyms or it’s outside at the crag.

people make mistakes and people fall. And this was a mistake by the climber, but ultimately it was our responsibility because they’re in our programs, they’re under our care. And it was a really big opportunity for reflection for me on, you know, while we can…

We can never prevent accidents fully. It, from that moment, motivated me to put my full energy, attention, and commitment to making our programs, our coaches, as, we don’t use the word safe in climbing because climbing is just not safe. It’s just not safe. Injuries, accidents happen all the time.

but doing everything we possibly can to mitigate risks and to ensure that nobody gets hurt.

Anthony Codispoti (59:38)
Can you point to a specific example of something that you introduced that’s made your climbing facility safer than they were before that kind of came about through this moment of reflection?

Eliza Keegan (59:54)
⁓ we implemented and we, is something that is still today high priority for us. we implemented this pretty robust, ⁓ incident response training to all of our staff. And that included belay takeovers where somebody’s set up incorrectly or if somebody is on the wall.

staff can come in and very quickly take over that belay. And we have since trained all of our operations staff to be able to respond to an on the wall incident. And so I think at the time we had some procedures in place, but there’s so much technical knowledge and equipment understanding you need to do an on the wall rescue or respond. And it’s very, it’s very intense.

when there’s an accident or an injury in the gym, it is something that’s unique to our industry. We see gross injuries pretty regularly and our staff have to respond to those incidents. so training, implementing training that is so dialed and having the retaining.

training being recurring so that it’s an automated response for our staff. In theory, hopefully, has reduced and will continue to reduce the severity or the likelihood of a severe injury, but then also resources for our staff if they do have to respond to a bad accident or injury, because that can take a toll on your mental health, for sure.

Anthony Codispoti (1:01:36)
Yeah,

absolutely. Eliza, I just have one more question for you today, but before I ask it, I want to do a few things. ⁓ First of all, anyone looking to get in touch with Momentum Climbing, very easy, Momentum Climbing.com. ⁓ Very simple, easy, remember domain name Momentum Climbing.com. And if you’d like to reach out to Eliza, she’s given us permission to share her personal email address, which is Eliza with a Z dot Keegan. So that’s dot K.

E-E-G-A-N, so Eliza.Kegan at MomentumClimbing.com. And we’ll have links to both of those things in the show notes for folks. Also as a reminder that my company, Back Benefits Agency, provides telehealth counseling and therapy unlimited in 190 prescription meds to employees that’s always free for them to access. And does so in a way that actually puts more money in the company’s pockets and the employees too. Finally,

If you take just a moment to leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast app, we will be forever grateful to you. So last question for you, Eliza, you and I reconnect one year from today and you’ve got your fist pumping in the air because you’re super excited about something. What’s that thing you hope to be celebrating one year from?

Eliza Keegan (1:02:50)
More locations, more locations. It is such a gift and an honor to bring climbing gyms to communities because of the communities that they build. And it’s so special to be inside one of our facilities. ⁓ And so I think what we do, it’s a good thing to put out to the world. It’s a good thing to bring to cities and communities. And I just want to do more of it.

Anthony Codispoti (1:03:17)
Any idea how many more locations we might be looking at one year from today?

Eliza Keegan (1:03:22)
One year from today, hopefully we have two more locations open one year from today with many more on the way.

Anthony Codispoti (1:03:32)
All well, Eliza Keegan, CEO of Momentum Indoor Climbing. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Eliza Keegan (1:03:42)
Thanks, Anthony.

Anthony Codispoti (1:03:43)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.