Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Johnson.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Aaron. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My name is Aaron Johnson, and I am a Louisiana native. Raised by a single mother of five children, my father was murdered when I was four years old. Not having a father, I used fitness, sports and my coaches as teachers for my life.
As a high school superstar athlete in, football and basketball, I decided to play collegiate football. My childhood dream came true when I received an athletic football scholarship to Grambling State University from head coach Doug Williams, Super Bowl XXII MVP. After four years of play, multiple championships, two knee surgeries, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, I decided to go forgo my senior season of football to attend graduate school at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
As a graduate assistant intern, for the 2005-2006 Sugar Bowl Champion LSU Tigers Football team, I worked, as an assistant, in the Office of Football Recruiting. Working closely with eventual National Champion head coach Les Miles and assistant Jimbo Fisher, nationally ranked high school football recruits, their families, and loyal Tiger fans was a great experience. In 2006, I graduated with a Master of Science degree in Kinesiology with a concentration in Sports Administration.
In March 2011, I moved to Dallas for more opportunities to expand my youth fitness program the Skate Buds Skate Fitness Camp. Shortly after moving here, I became a certified personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness, then LA Fitness. In 2013, I decided to go full time with my youth fitness and personal training programs under the Aaron Johnson Fitness Club (AJFC) brand.
Aaron Johnson Fitness Club and Team Skate Buds have worked with over 40 youth non-profit organizations such as the City of Dallas, Irving Independent School District, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, and Vogel Alcove. We have safely and successfully completed fitness training for youth ages 6-18 throughout Texas and Louisiana. All training is designed to help youth understand proper fitness and nutrition principles and how a lifetime of fitness applies to learn life skills.
In 2019, I self-published my second book, Don’t Be A Dumb Jock: How to Be A Super Human Being, for high school-aged students. Since age eight, I have spent my life in sports competitions, sports training, training fitness classes, and personal training sessions. I used sports as a vehicle for and a teacher of life. My coaches were my mentors and father-figures. There are many scientific parallels between fitness training, sports, and life. For instance, do you believe in yourself? How does strengthening your mind affect the performance of your muscles? I address these and other topics relevant for high school-aged athletes in my book.
Has it been a smooth road? If not what were the struggles along the way? How did you overcome to it?
Smooth is the last word I would use to describe this grassroots journey. The first obstacle for me was to overcome self-doubt and to learn to trust myself. I had been successful in team sports and personal education, but business ownership was a different sport, a different type of education.
Secondly, I had to learn to look at obstacles as opportunities. Circumstances often push us in the right direction. Things happen to test our strength of will. If I had a victim mentality, I would not have the ability to see the opportunity through the obstacle. It sometimes takes painful situations to help you make difficult decisions. Just as fitness training can be painful or uncomfortable, life has a way of teaching a lesson through painful or uncomfortable, situations. Learning to embrace those situations in fitness training and life is a powerful life skill.
Moving to Dallas, living out of my car for a few months. Not knowing many people, building a personal and professional network. Sleeping four hours or less for years. No TV for years. Eating off the dollar menu and being thankful for it. Learning to be thankful in my mind and heart. I call those obstacles and challenges or opportunities for growth. Now, I am being interviewed by Voyage Magazine. Hard work and dedication pays off.
Please tell us more about your work. What do you guys do? What do you specialize in? What sets you apart from competition?
Aaron Johnson Fitness Club is a fitness company specializing in the design, manufacture and distribution of Skate Buds Strap-on Heel Skates. We also design customized fitness programs for individuals and groups who have specific goals they want to achieve such as weight loss, strength training, body shaping, etc. Our programming also targets specific medical concerns that can be impacted through fitness and nutrition such as diabetes, high blood pressure, joint pain, etc. Our signature programs include the Skate Buds Skate Fitness Camp for ages 7 – 13 and customized fitness training programs for adults 50 and older.
Working with over 40 youth non-profit organizations such as the City of Dallas, Irving Independent School District, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, and Vogel Alcove, we safely completed over 150,000 training sessions for ages 6-18. We have an in-depth amount of research concerning the health and wellness of this age group.
What separates AJFC is our understanding of the study of kinesiology, the mind-body connection and ways to creatively implement methods through physical and mental exercise to rebalance that connection. We have been perfecting our methods over the last ten years. These methods work for athletic and non-athletic people.
Since 2014, AJFC has worked with Irving Independent School District and other school districts demonstrating the Skate Buds® Strap-on Heel Skates product within their elementary schools’ physical education programs. Schools and school districts throughout Texas and Louisiana have introduced its students to using Skate Buds Strap-on Heel Skates® as a safe, fun alternative to getting daily physical activity.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
To me, luck has come in the form of actually finding my gift or a purpose in life. I feel lucky to love what I do every day. Giving respect to everything that has life is making luck for yourself. I am sure there is bad luck but I think bad luck comes from being disrespectful to life.
Business uses a lot of skill, with both good and bad luck intertwined. Business is not about luck. Think about having an idea in your mind, a vision. Holding that vision for 10 years or more. Navigating through life every day like you know your vision is going to come to fruition. No one cares to help you. No one can see what you see. No one believes. Many times people cannot hold a thought for three days, let alone a business idea for 30 days, before quitting and starting another business.
For example, how many people are going to have an idea to lose ten pounds this coming year. If you train with AJFC you lose ten pounds in 10 – 60 days, guaranteed. I know people who have been wanting to lose ten pounds for ten or more years. I don’t call that bad luck. I would say training with Aaron Johnson Fitness Club would make you lucky.
Contact Info:
- Address: Training facility location
12740 Merit Dr.
Dallas, Texas 75251 - Website: www.AaronJohnsonFitnessClub.com
- Phone: 214-580-0571
- Email: info@AaronJohnsonFitnessClub.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/AaronJohnsonFitness
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/AaronJohnsonFitnessClub.com
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/AaronJohnsonFit
- Yelp: www.yelp.com/AaronJohnsonFitnessClub
Image Credit:
Atali Samuel Photography Studio
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