Why We’re Moving On From Zenplanner

Raincity Athletics has relied on Zenplanner for over 10 years, and in the early days, it was incredible. I had regular calls with their programmers, and the software truly adapted to what gyms like ours needed. It felt like we were building something together.

But in 2017, Zenplanner was bought by Daxko, and at first, the changes were small and mostly positive. Then, things took a turn in 2021 when Daxko brought in Genstar Capital as co-investors. Suddenly, promised improvements—like merging Zenplanner with SugarWOD—never came through. Features we'd depended on were becoming obsolete, new ones hid behind paywalls, and support was practically nonexistent. What used to be a reliable partnership now felt like a company that had was just trying to squeeze us.

The reason I tell this story is because, while our new software is miles ahead in some ways, it's also been a tough transition—no fault of Push Press, but rewriting all our backend processes has been a real challenge. However, the difference is, when I reach out to Push Press support, I hear back within hours. I’m dealing with the same people every time, and they genuinely care about our business, no matter how big or small we are. It's brought back that essential small-business connection - and if you haven’t seen our blog, we’re BIG fans of supporting local and/or small business.

So, as we say goodbye to a decade's worth of data stored in Zenplanner, I wanted to make sure to put it somewhere we can look back on and reflect—because it was one hell of a decade. Thank you to everyone who was a part of it, and I can’t wait for what’s to come in the next one.

The Members.

One thing we cannot transfer over is the total attendance from Zenplanner. So we’ll be starting fresh in Push Press - but here are your top attendees in our first decade and the number of sessions/classes they attended <3

• Nicole Nybo: 2, 310
• William Newhouse: 2,007
• Christopher Tan: 1,954
• Misch Shomura: 1,913
• Ryan Holyk: 1,773
• Billy Huang: 1,605
• Alex Tang: 1,512
• Raincity Dentist: 1,446
• Jesse Bittle: 1,422
• Randy Romero: 1,372

The Animals.

Although this data is no where in Zenplanner, it’s obviously a crucial part of our first decade :P

Check-out @dogsofraincity on instagram to see the saved stories and hashtags of the 75+ dogs that have made their way through our doors (among a few cats, and a tortoise).

Here’s a few of the top attendees: #raincitytobey, #raincityeric, #raincityabby, #raincitytilly, #raincitytrousers, #raincitylucy

And a few of the OGs: #raincityrevi, #raincitymia, #raincitysawyer, #raincitysadie

And of course the new mascott: @pongthetort

The Coaches.

As our facility grew, so did the need for more coaches. What started with three owners and one full-time coach in a 2,500 sq. ft. space expanded into managing a team of 6–8 full-timers, 5+ part-timers, and a 7,500 sq. ft. facility.

Over the years, we’ve had 14+ full-time coaches (earning the majority of their income at Raincity), with an average tenure of over four years. We’ve also worked with at least 14 part-time coaches, whose time with us ranged from 6 months to 10 years.

For the full current team, check-out the coaches page.

The Causes.

Over the years we’ve supporeted a lot of incredible causes and communitys. I love to bring in Qmunity to work with our staff on ensuring we create a safe and welcoming environment for all. We’ve donated and volunteerd at food banks, regular clothing drives and donations, and so much more.

The biggest one that we’ve continued to support for a decade plus? Special Olympics Canada. Over the years through our annual CF24 event we’ve raised over $50,000 to help ensure that athletes of all levels and abilities have access to the benefits of sport, just like Raincity provides to it’s members.

The Community.

From day one, my goal was never to create the "best gym ever" because "best" is subjective. Instead, I set out to build a community where anyone feels welcome—a space to connect with people from all walks of life and somewhere you actually want to spend your time. From there, we’ll make sure you move, sweat, and take care of both your body and mind.

Over the years, we’ve hosted dozens of events. While we don’t party like we did in the early days (thankfully), I still love any chance to bring our community together beyond group classes.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our community in the first decade, and I hope you’ll stick around with us for the next one.

The Athletes & Results.

• 161,207+ results were logged
• 1,878 Athletes walked through our doors
• 1,334 of those athletes attended 10+ sessions
• 555 of them attended over 100 classes
• 14 of them attended over 1,000 classes

Top results?

…coming soon as we export the leaderboards from Zenplanner :)

For the kids and families I work with

A big part of why I set up this blog is for the kids I work with, and their families. As someone who works closely with a lot of kids and parents, I think it’s crucial to have full transparency. Parents deserve to know exactly what kind of person is teaching life lessons to their children.

For myself

On top of that, this blog is also about transparency and accountability for me. As someone who is neurodivergent (diagnosed and medicated for ADHD, with some undiagnosed autism mixed in too), I have a lot of thoughts. Usually more than I know what to do with. This blog gives me a place to put those thoughts, somewhere that isn’t social media. People can engage with the content if and when they want to. I’ll still share pieces on social media and other platforms, but this blog is my home base. It’s a place I own, where I can look back over time. Basically, a public journal.

Transparency - for myself, and those I work with

If you know me at all, you know I’m a BIG advocate for transparency. This blog allows people (myself included) to look back on my past opinions and see the consistency in my values. I didn’t realize how rare that was until I got older, and especially until I revisited some of my older blog posts from years ago. It felt good to realize I’m still pushing the same ideas more than a decade later.