Fitness and finance have a lot in common.

Adam Deane, 41, who owns Ronin Capital Management and will open an Anytime Fitness in East Naples on March 15, said the similarities between them rest in the mission of helping people achieve their goals.

"You have financial fitness and health fitness," Deane said.

"What I'm trying to do with Ronin Capital is help people with their financial health, and with Anytime Fitness, I'm helping people with their physical health."

Deane said he opened Ronin Capital Management in December 2010 after 14 years of working for financial giants such as Bank of America and Wachovia, which became Wells Fargo last year.

Deane said he witnessed the financial crisis first-hand and ultimately decided to break away and start an independent capital management business.

"The firms were doing things that they shouldn't have been doing, pushing investments that they shouldn't have been pushing and, at the end of the day, I felt that the larger firms did not have the client's best interest in mind," Deane said.

"I'm ultimately about preserving capital, making money for my clients and sitting on the same side of the table as they do," he said.

Deane began in the financial advising world after a short stint in realty, a business that his father and stepmom have owned for more than 30 years with Andrea Deane and Associates.

Deane said after moving to Naples in the mid-1990s and realizing the influx of Realtors, he began to find a different profession. He said he contacted Larry L. Galantis at Prudential Securities about becoming a financial adviser. Galantis hired Deane and served as his mentor.

"My role was to provide him with the guidance that one can not learn in a classroom environment," said Galantis.

Galantis, who now works for Raymond James Financial in Tampa, said he helped Deane develop his skills as an adviser and continues to act as a sounding board for Deane's ideas.

Galantis said that as a financial adviser he tells clients to diversify their investments, a tip he said that advisers like himself and Deane should adhere to.

"It's called practicing what we preach," Galantis said. "In the case of Anytime Fitness, it allows him to capitalize on a passion of his, which of course, is physical fitness."

Deane said that as an adviser he is always on the lookout for opportunities and he found one after hearing about Anytime Fitness from a friend in Mississippi about two years ago.

Deane said he had always thought about opening a gym but the "big box" gym model was something he wanted to avoid.

Anytime Fitness appealed to Deane because of its smaller size and focus on a more intimate relationship with members compared to them feeling like a number.

"The best way to describe what I'm trying to do is to create a 'Cheers' environment in the gym," Deane said, referring to the former NBC television series.

"Where everybody knows your name."

The 5,000-square-foot gym, near the intersection of 951 and Davis Boulevard, is open 24 hours a day seven days a week and caters to members' time schedule, Deane said.

The gym will have traditional machines in addition to a room for CrossFit training, which he said is an effective method of training that creates camaraderie among participants. The gym will also have a "Heroes" membership program for those who serve in the community as firefighters, EMTs, hospital staff, police officers and other first responders.

Deane's Anytime Fitness is not the first in the area. The first Anytime Fitness opened in March 2008 off Livingston Road in Naples. According to owner Dustin Heath, the two gyms will not be in competition and the addition of another Anytime Fitness will help the business.

Deane said his ultimate goal is to open two more Anytime Fitness gyms in Southwest Florida in the next two years and to expand to about 10 clubs throughout Florida in the next five years.

Although Deane said his first priority is his investment business, he thinks the gyms serve as a perfect complement.

According to Deane, his passion for fitness is something that will be brought to his ownership in the gym. Deane said he has been heavily involved in fitness since the age of 13 and that passion continued throughout high school and college.

Deane's fitness path led him to mixed martial arts while working as a financial adviser in the late-1990s. Deane said he was looking for an outlet to release the stress from the day and that he found that outlet in mixed martial arts, a passion that he had first got involved in while in California.

Deane said he continued to train and compete in fights in Bonita Springs at American Kenpo Karate and Shootfighting. Deane said while at American Kenpo he reached the ranks of assistant instructor.

Deane said being an entrepreneur is all about taking risks and branching out to other endeavors.

"If you look at the businesses or entrepreneurs who do well, they are the ones who take the risks when things aren't going well," Deane said.

Original post:
Financially fit: New East Naples gym owner combines his passions