Ep. 34 Jeff Metzger with Small Business Bootcamp

About this episode

Jeff Metzger discusses his journey in building Kids First Sports Center and shares insights on business growth and leadership.

From a church basement… to America’s largest privately owned kids sports center 🥷🏗️ He started with three nights in a rented room and one rule.. never retreat, grow even by 1%. Five decades later, Kids First spans 184,000 sq ft, serves 25,000 weekly visits, and is the playbook gym owners travel to learn. In this episode of The Ninjas Way Podcast, Jeff reveals the 1% growth theory that quietly compounds, and how owning your real estate (in the right demographics) can transform your wealth and your sleep. He also breaks down the leadership shift from hub-and-spoke control to true delegation, why mistakes are mandatory for growth, and how core values and open-book management turn teams into owners of the outcome. In this Episode 👇🏻 03:13 Building Kids First Sports Center 08:00 Philosophy on Growth and Real Estate 21:12 Evaluating and Expanding Programs 32:22 Decentralization and Business Growth 35:22 Allowing Room for Failure 39:47 Introduction to Small Business Bootcamp 43:10 Core Strategies for Business Success 49:56 The Importance of Core Values 55:16 Transparency and Open Book Management I’ll be in Ohio with Jeff for Small Business Bootcamp Nov 13th-17th for total immersion…

People in this episode

Hosts: Ally Johnson, Jake Marshman, Charlie Mitchell

Guest: Jeff Metzger

Topics covered

• business growth
• real estate
• leadership
• core values
• open-book management
• entrepreneurship

Keywords

• Kids First
• business growth
• real estate
• leadership
• core values
• open-book management
• Small Business Bootcamp

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Kids First, Small Business Bootcamp

Places: Ohio

More episodes of The Ninjas Way

• Ep. 37 Lynn Ledford · January 14, 2026 · 44 min
• Ep. 36 USA Ninja Challenge with Dale Grant and Robin Ann · November 25, 2025 · 46 min
• Ep. 35 F.I.N.A. Federation of International Ninja Athletics · October 28, 2025 · 42 min
• Ep. 33 Julie Gelsinger with Pop and Hold and Ninja Logic · August 30, 2025 · 45 min
• Ep. 33 Mike Cook and UBW · August 9, 2025 · 53 min
• Ep. 32 Reece O'hara and the Ninja Connect Conference · August 2, 2025 · 36 min