Today we’d like to introduce you to Ranier Agustin.
Hi Ranier, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
In 2020, COVID essentially forced my back against the wall. I lost my job, and because of a paperwork error, I didn’t receive any government assistance. I found myself in a position where I had to figure something out, and starting a business became my only real option.
Fortunately, I had something to build from. I had earned my degree in Exercise Science from UNC Charlotte in 2017 and had spent the previous three years working as a Head Strength & Conditioning Coach. I knew training, performance, and how to work with people. What I didn’t know was business.
So I decided to lean into what I knew and spend as much time as possible learning what I didn’t. I started RanierFit and spent the early years figuring out everything from sales and marketing to operations, client experience, and how to build a sustainable company. There was a lot of trial and error, but every year taught me something new.
As RanierFit grew, I realized I didn’t want to build just another personal training business. My background was in performance, and I wanted to bring the same level of preparation, structure, and attention to detail used in professional sports to people outside of professional sports. That idea eventually became the foundation of RanierFit: helping high-performing people train with the same intentionality that professional athletes do.
Today, RanierFit has evolved into a performance and wellness company serving executives, entrepreneurs, physicians, attorneys, and athletes. The team provides concierge-level services that bring together individualized training, sports performance, nutrition and lifestyle coaching, and recovery, all designed to help clients perform at their best. Along the way, the team has also had the opportunity to work with professional and NCAA Division I athletes and support organizations and programs across the sports and fitness communities.
Over the past six years, I’ve been fortunate to see RanierFit reach some meaningful milestones, including being featured on WCCB Charlotte News, being recognized as a top personal training provider in Charlotte by Charlotte Charm, and being selected as an NMSDC Emerging Young Entrepreneur.
But the biggest evolution for me has been realizing that fitness is really just the vehicle. What I’m trying to help people do is be better prepared for whatever their “game day” is, whether that’s competing at the highest level, leading a company, performing in a demanding career, or simply being able to show up fully for their family and life.
Six years later, I’m still building. I’m proud of how far RanierFit and our team have come, but I’m even more excited about where we can go. The goal has always been to raise the standard for what performance coaching can look like and create an experience that genuinely makes people’s lives better.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I would say it has been more of a winding road, with plenty of hills and construction along the way. Coming into entrepreneurship with no business background, I experienced a lot of hardships that made me question whether this was the right path for me and for my career. From crazy client experiences, to employees taking intellectual property, to incredibly busy months that followed some of the slowest months of my career, there has been a lot of uncertainty and trial and error.
But adversity has also been my greatest teacher. Every challenge has forced me to become more resilient, learn something new, and grow both personally and professionally. Looking back, I’m actually appreciative of many of the difficult experiences because they have shaped how I lead, how I approach business, and ultimately the kind of company I want RanierFit to become.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
At its core, RanierFit specializes in human performance. We create solutions for busy, high-performing professionals and athletes that help protect their bandwidth, improve their performance, and allow them to show up where they truly matter most. Whether that means helping an athlete prepare to compete, helping an executive manage the demands of a career, or helping someone simply feel and perform better in their everyday life, our job is to figure out what that person needs and build the right solution around it.
Something I’ve come to appreciate about myself is that I’m a creative. That might sound a little unusual in an industry that can sometimes feel very black and white and traditionally structured. There can be a tendency to believe there is one right way to train, one right way to operate, or one right way to build a fitness business. I’ve never really subscribed to that.
I genuinely believe every idea is a great idea until it fails. And even then, I don’t necessarily see it as failure. I like to tinker, experiment, tweak, and figure out how to make an idea better. To me, that’s one of the most fun parts of owning a business. I get to make my own rules, create new resources, test new ideas, and continually ask, “What if we did it this way instead?”
That mindset has shaped RanierFit just as much as our training philosophy has. We are constantly looking for better ways to serve our clients and create an experience that feels different from what they might find elsewhere. We don’t want to be a business that simply follows the traditional model of personal training. We want to create our own model.
I also think we are known for being a very people-first company. RanierFit has developed a strong, tight-knit community of people who share common goals, aspirations, drive, and values. That culture is something we intentionally protect. And because of that, we understand that RanierFit isn’t for everyone. We don’t want it to be.
We want to be unapologetically ourselves. We want the people who work with us to believe in what we are building, contribute to the culture, and feel like they are part of something bigger than simply showing up for a workout.
What I’m most proud of, though, has very little to do with any individual accomplishment. I’m most proud of my 26-year-old self for betting on myself. I didn’t have a business background. I didn’t have everything figured out. I just knew I had something I believed in, and I was willing to take the risk to see where it could go.
Six years later, that decision has put RanierFit and our team in a position I’m incredibly proud of. And I think the best part is that we are still creating, still experimenting, and still figuring out what’s possible.
What does success mean to you?
Honestly, I’m not sure I have a clear definition of success yet. I don’t necessarily feel successful, and I think that’s probably because I’ve always viewed this as a long game.
If success were a feeling, though, I think I would describe it as the moments when a client tells me about a personal win. When they tell me that the hard work is paying off, that the systems and habits we’ve been building are becoming part of their life, or that something that used to feel difficult has suddenly become easier. Maybe the weight feels lighter, the task feels more manageable, or they simply feel more confident in what they’re capable of.
Those moments mean a lot to me because they are a reminder that what we are building at RanierFit extends far beyond a workout. We are trying to create systems that make people better and give them the tools to perform in the areas of life that matter most to them.
So maybe success is a long game. Maybe it’s not a destination or a number that you eventually reach. For me, it feels more like a never-ending pursuit of growth, both for myself and for the people we have the privilege of working with.
I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like I’ve “made it,” and honestly, I think I’m okay with that. I’d rather always have another level to reach, another idea to explore, and another person to help become better.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ranierfit.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ranierfit/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ranieragustin
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RanierFit
- Other: https://www.ranierfit.com/contact
