Today we’d like to introduce you to Jon Lewis.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I have always been an entrepreneur at heart. In middle school, I would go to the store and buy potato chips and snacks to sell them to my classmates to earn money. So, I always saw myself running my own business as an adult but had not quite figured out what kind of business it would be.
Fast forward to the moment I was graduating high school and decided not to accept any athletic basketball scholarships. Instead, I chose to attend college on an academic scholarship. I chose Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) after learning about the prestige of their business program. Instead of an entrepreneurial focus, I pursued marketing and later earned an MBA from the accelerated and rigorous academic business program.
During my matriculation through the program, I adopted the dream of landing a corporate job with a Fortune 500 company, climbing the corporate ladder into a leadership role, and breaking the cycle of poverty for myself and my family.
Just a few years into my professional career, with God’s favor and some hard work, I was fortunate to achieve those things. It took a near-death experience that left me unconscious for almost 24 hours to shift my perspective on life and caused me to decide that I wanted more for my life. I had decided that the corporate dream job and a predictable paycheck left me feeling unfulfilled. Instead of having my soul lie dormant, I took action and shifted my mindset, focusing on pursuing my passion while using the gifts and experiences that God had given me to connect and inspire others.
While soul searching and rehabbing from the injuries sustained in the accident, I reflected on a motivational speech that I ironically heard at a company meeting a few months prior. In short, the speech’s message was about finding your sweet spot (the perfect harmony of something that you love to do, that you’re good at and that people will pay you for).
With free paid time off to rehab, I rehabbed my body and restored full function in my hand despite the doctor telling me it wasn’t likely. I also lost about 25 pounds due to working out (taking control of my body was my unconscious rebellious response to the doctor). Eventually, I returned to work only to have my clients from my corporate job more interested in my physical transformation than the millions of dollars I walked in their door to consult them on.
After several fitness inquiries on how to transform those clients’ bodies, I realized that I had a business opportunity and a unique opportunity to exist in my sweet spot. I would be able to reactivate my competitive nature from when I played sports and strength trained. I’d also be able to combine it with what I had learned in school and work about selling, influencing and being results-oriented. Moreover, I would be able to use my own story of a near-death experience, weight loss, and overcoming an “experts” opinion of what I wouldn’t be able to do, to inspire others about overcoming odds.
Not long after, I created a fitness business that was based on what I believed helped change my situation and my entire life. That specifically consisting of determination and having a tenacious passion to achieve anything you put your mind to.
Has it been rough?
It’s been extremely difficult to grow a business from scratch while working a full-time career in a leadership role. I’ve had to push myself to be more organized, more strategic and disciplined. I literally had to kill off the old me for a new version of myself to emerge.
Sacrifice.
I’ve had to trade off a ton of things to be able to achieve my vision. I’ve had to sacrifice nights out with friends, fraternity anniversary reunions, trips out of the country with friends, and even trips back home to see my family for the sake of using every ounce of free time I had. I even had to completely give up drinking, dating and whatever glimmer of a social life I had to ensure I was ultra-focused and efficient. While productive, was very alienating.
Organized
In addition to sacrificing, as the scale of my professional career grew, my business did as well. It became impossible to remember to invoice my clients, to build workouts, and budget my time to attend to both my career and my business. I’ve had to implement a process and put a structure in place to manage the seemingly endless demands of both. It’s something I still work to get better at still to this day.
Strategy
As for strategy, I’ve really had to work with the end in mind. Experience had taught me that my destination would determine my direction. And that where I ultimately wanted to end up would make the day-to-day decisions for me. While simple, asking myself, “is doing this going to reduce or eliminate some of the work I’ll have to do tomorrow,” wasn’t easy. But in some respects, it’s helped to delay instant gratification and taking short cuts.
Rebirth.
Those three aforementioned things played a major role in recreating myself. Before running my business, I was the one person that often had the good fortune to excel without much effort, whether it was academia, sports or anything else. In sports, my talent or athleticism helped afforded me the luxury of not having to work as hard for success. In academia, it was my ability to learn fast and or process patterns in information quickly that made me think I didn’t need to spend as much time studying.
But when I launched my business and started in a new position with a new company in Tampa, I had no idea of the reality check I would receive. For the first time in my life, the same level of effort I used to always give to things that would yield success suddenly wasn’t remotely close to being sufficient.
For the first time, I had to apply myself without being able to get by being a quick study, athletically gifted or personable. That caused me to look in the mirror, to be real with myself and double down on the very essence of what my budding business was about. Which was applying yourself, denying yourself (instant gratification), and supplying yourself (with accountability, knowledge, specialized skills, positive self-talk, and grace, etc.) to get the job done.
Please tell us more about your business or organization. What should we know? What do you do, what do you specialize in / what are you known for? What sets you apart from others? What are you most proud brand wise? What do you want our readers to know about your brand, offerings, services, etc.
I run a personal training business and an activewear/athleisure company. My companies’ mission is to inspire, empower and equip clients with the tools and skills needed to succeed. Additionally, I make sure to give back and invest in community causes that I am passionate about.
I specialize in nutritional coaching, body transformations and building foundational knowledge on how to properly move.
As a certified personal trainer, certified nutritionist, and gym owner, I specifically provide the information, tools, and the physical space to create comfort (without others judging), confidence (in exercising around other people), and sustainable change (body and habits).
I’ve learned that simplifying all of the information that exists in the fitness world and guiding a person step by step from whatever is their starting point has been instrumental to a person growth and success. Especially those that are already eager about investing in themselves but overwhelmed by not knowing where to start.
I’m known for my passion to truly engage and join my clients on their journey without making them feel like I’m just trying to take their money. That passion combined with my knowledge and science-based training methods has also created an impressive portfolio of client transformations.
I believe that being a one-stop-shop that is professional, passionate and vested in the community separates me from others.
To elaborate on that, I specifically provide the ability to learn and improve your fitness capability in a private setting at the facility that I own. I also provide clients with the ability to learn about how to eat food to achieve their personal goals while creating a safe space for them to meet other working professionals who enjoy having fun while exercising. Lastly, I try my best to remain active in giving back to the community and that provides clients with an opportunity to be connected to something bigger than themselves.
As it relates to my brand, I’m proud to be a business that others talk about with pride. From building a brand from scratch and training clients at the park to growing into my brick and mortar space. I am proud of leveraging the knowledge that I learned from my professional career and applying it in ways that have helped several clients land jobs after interview coaching them. I am proud to have worked with other small businesses by giving them an opportunity to use my space to connect with their growing base in person and or using my online platform to reach an audience that could be in use of their services. I’m proud of my response to the people that sought-after training with me only to never call back after learning about the pricing. To me, I interpreted it as them not being able to politely say, “I’m not worth it.” And instead of allowing that to discourage me and causing it to lower my prices (which are typically more competitive than any other training business in the city), I kept on pushing and making my offering more value-added. I am proud to have hosted small and large scale events for other businesses in the city and even virtual events for my university.
Lastly, I’m proud to be recognized as a brand that has invested money and sweat equity in the community. From repainting a 90-year-old’s home, donating school supplies to Sheehy Elementary in Tampa and other schools around the country, raising money for a woman battling cancer to donating basic survival supplies during COVID-19.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I’ve been running and growing my business while still working full time in a very demanding leadership role that spans across half the US.
I taught myself Spanish on an internship and still can manage my way through a conversation.
I taught myself to play the guitar. Sometimes when bored, I find a song that I want to learn, and then I get on YouTube to see how fast I can teach myself.
That despite how much time I invest in my career and my business, I value my sleep.
Pricing:
- One on one coaching- $55 an hour
- Group Training- $50 for 4 sessions
- “Drop in” single group session- $15
- Nutrition Course and on going coaching-$150
Contact Info:
- Email: T1Nfittraining@gmail.com
- Website: Www.T1N.co
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/t1n_flame?igshid=15rv4e5ylu52v
- Facebook: https://instagram.com/muteque?igshid=912wirv5bxgn
- Other: https://linktr.ee/muteque
Image Credits
Jon- Owner of T1N Flame Fitness
