Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Jensen.
Thomas, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
In 2006 I was somewhat successfully contracting with that local gym, and had a “full enough” schedule and a “good enough” business system…or so I thought. The gym then shut down, and I tried to move my business to a not-so-nice city facility. Then the mass exodus of clients began: one client was going to get married and buy a new house, which replaced the personal training budget. Another client had a job transfer to Austin. Another client was moving to San Antonio. Yet 2 more clients had job transfers out of the area! Another client’s wife had a baby, replacing his money for training. I was all the way down to just one client, and getting sick of the up and down (but mostly down it seemed) “personal training life.”
After a few ups and many downs… I decided in 2008 I would go back to health and fitness, and reluctantly went to just “get a job” at Lifetime Fitness. When I spoke with Lifetime, I was surprised to find it wouldn’t be as bad as I thought. I did cringe when I find out I would be making such a small percentage of the actual session cost, but they promised I could easily keep a full schedule, and as I certainly didn’t know how to do that on my own, I figured “what the hek.” I joined them in December, and after learning the ropes, sure enough, I quickly got a full schedule in January. But that was January – New Year’s resolutions. The problem was that January turned in February, and February turned in March, then came April, and by May, clients were so flaky, I was in the red – because of course I was only paid when sessions were redeemed.
The poor money wasn’t even the worst part. I had to wake up at 4am every morning, just to get to the gym by 5:30, for my first appointment. I was running on sleep deprivation, and throwing down caffeinated drinks like there was no tomorrow. As far as I was concerned, there WAS no tomorrow! I knew I couldn’t keep this up and live, much less thrive. I had to make a change.
I figured if self-employment wasn’t the answer, and personal training on commission wasn’t the answer, maybe the answer was a more typical corporate office job after all. But I wanted to stay in health and fitness. So I found what I thought to be the perfect solution: a Corporate Wellness Health Coach Position. Tada! I would get to work an 8 hour day and get a steady paycheck. I could wear “grown up” clothes to work, and finally be respected as a man with a “real” job. HA!!!! I had to NEGOTIATE just get a 30K salary. I had to start driving a 1989 BMW that I picked up for free! I literally put black electric tape all the way around it, to replace the missing bodywork and plug the gaping holes, and used a SHARPIE to fill in the faded paint around the windshield and windows. When I pulled up to stoplights, I had hold the brake with my toes, and keep my heel on the gas, because if the revs dropped too low, the car would die. Also, it had no A/C….and I worked in Dallas. I had to wear a t-shirt on the drive to work, take off the soaking wet t-shirt while in the parking garage, put on my dress shirt, and go into work, hoping my butt wasn’t sweating so much that it looked like I had an accident. When it rained I had to do the same thing – because the roof leaked. One day I almost got into a wreck because a 1.5″ BOLT fell out of the roof into my lap and scared the hek out of me! Some would think the end of this car was a suicide attempt, as I literally drove it into the back of a stopped pickup truck. I promise though, I was literally blinded by the sun. The last thing I needed was to become carless (I was getting close enough to Flintstone-Footing it anyway) in that the car that I did have.
Thank God for my girlfriend (now my wife), who helped with the remaining cash I needed to pick up a 1997 Honda Prelude. Then, what I thought was a little more good news: I sent an idea to the CEO of the Corporate Wellness Company, and after complimenting me on my “big-picture” vision, asked me what I’d like to do in the company. I knew sales was where the money was, and I told him I wanted to join the sale team, and that I actually wanted to join it NOW. He met with me and decided to “promote” me …. Only he kept my salary the same, and added the “opportunity” to make another 10 grand or so. Little did I know: this particular sales position would be much worse than the health coach job, and yield me no more money at all. I had to make 80 cold-calls a day, learn and organize leads into NetSuite, and teach the rest of the team how to use the technology – all the while getting shoved work from my lazy immediate superior on a power-trip. I was sitting for 12 hours a day: an hour drive to work, 4 hours of work, a sit-down lunch, 4 hours of work, and an hour drive home from work. I gained 30 pounds and felt like crap! The only thing I like about my job was the fact that “business development” was in my title.
Every day I dreamed of doing my own thing again…and I wondered what would come first: the chance to hit the field and close deals at the company…or the start to my own company. I was getting impatient waiting on the corporate world to give me what I thought I deserved. I wanted to take the jump back into my own business, but wasn’t sure if I was ready yet. As I was contemplating this as usual on my drive into work one day, the company was planning a large layoff, due to one of their big contracts not getting resigned. I got to work that morning to see one of my friends on the sales team being ushered away from her desk, with all her belongings. I thought, that’s odd…I wonder what she did….or didn’t do. I was actually a little jealous. “I kind of wish that was me, haha” I thought. Well, I got my wish. The HR director came back to my cubicle and said they’d like to see me in the other room. Ok, I said. They explained that times were tough, and they had to lay people off. I told them not to worry about me. I had been thinking about leaving anyway. When they offered unemployment, I though “great,” a little money to help get me started.
I had tried other types of jobs, other industries, the corporate “ladder” – all were overrated. It turned out that my first idea WAS a GREAT idea, and that I should have stuck it out and got help. Oh well, I was where I was – and it was time to make the best of it.
The name of my business-to-be came to me one night. I am a Christian and noticed how badly out of shape and unhealthy Christians were. The Bible speaks of Christians as the “elect,” those who have chosen to trust God. I like how the word also meant “choose.” It would speak to non-Christians, but hold a subtle deeper meaning in the church.
The website would soon follow. I took the content I had written for the Corporate Wellness Company, and started my blog. I copied the “free stuff” idea from NPE and put up lead generating reports and supplements. I started an E-newsletter and branded it “The Word on Wellness”. I focused on SEO and finally started popping up the searches.
I spent a large part of 2009 laying the foundation for my business. Creating a web presence and learning all the special details that go along with that. Many of my friends, and even my fiancé at this point wondered what I was so busy doing! While having nothing to show for my efforts, I knew that it would pay off one day, but it was hard to convince others of that. I limped by with only a few repeat clients and unemployment to make ends meet. I was able to use what money I did have left over to purchase a ring, and married my wife in November of 2009. At least, I will always know that she didn’t marry me for my money! We moved into our townhouse, that we rented and spent our first Christmas together looking forward to January, but I didn’t have any clients… yet.
After over a year of web site building, I received my first client from an organic web search in February! A nine month contract for $7,700. Then soon after a referral client for another $680 a month. I was only making $1584 a month. Then, at the end of March, my wife lost her job. Honestly, my first reaction was “Yes! Eric says the first thing you should do is hire an assistant, now I have one!” The ‘I’ in my business became ‘we’… The pressure was on though. We had to generate some new business FAST!
Then another setback. My wife’s transmission went out on her car and we were now down to my old Prelude with 215,000 miles. If she was with me and I had to visit a client, she would drop me off and pick me back up. But this didn’t work very well, because the clients just thought my wife was waiting in the car the whole session. Not exactly good for company image. So I started dropping her off at a store nearby. It felt kind of strange to be dropping my wife off “on the street corner”, while I went on to my client to work. But she was so patient and really helped out with running the finances and supporting the business operations. You could say that we were fortunate… the car only broke down on the weekend and never in front of a client’s home. My wife is now a professional with the push start clutch-pop method, while I get to add an extra workout into my day.
Eric has always insisted that marketing was to be an investment, not a cost. I’m a cheapskate and had trouble spending money on anything. But, at this point I knew we had to make it or break it, so I FINALLY let go of some money, (or pulled out my credit card rather), and started doing Facebook and Google Ads. Yes, I went from spending less than $100 per month to around $1500 in advertising, but we had increased our sales by 1513% since July! In just 3 months we nearly doubled our e-news list by offering free reports through Facebook Ads, and started pulling in more HOT leads using Google Ads for local personal trainer searches. By trial and error, (and a $600 mistake with Google AdWords selections) the phone began to ring. Oh boy did it ring! I went from 2
clients to 9 clients in six weeks!
Fast forward to 2017!! I manage a team of ten and no longer deliver our service to our clients myself. We have an awesome group of personal trainers and a dietitian that work together to ensure our clients achieve their desired goals. Over the years our revenue has grown over 20% year after year. We are set to achieve over $500k in revenue this year and maintain a consistent client load of business executives, entrepreneurs and their families across the Dallas / Ft Worth metroplex.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I may have left out the part about living by candle light, without electricity… ultimately getting evicted, and hiding my car from the repo guy as I got started. As we grow I have traded one set of challenges, like not knowing how to pay the bills, for others, like finding and managing employees as we grow AND learning how to manage vendors that we hire, etc.
Elect Wellness – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We believe the human body was intelligently designed, and intelligently caring for it will yield the highest quality of life. Your amazing cardiovascular, endocrine, respiratory, reproductive, skeletal, digestive, and muscular systems are not accidents. (Though you might think they look like they’ve crashed) Likewise, random nutrition and exercise won’t form the body and life you desire. The right strategy, wisely implemented, and consistently adhered to over time, will produce the results you want. Just like your career and financial success were not randomly attained (even though some friends insist you are just lucky), your fitness success will not be randomly attained either. Here’s the good news: we have the roadmap. And better yet – we have the systems to keep you on the right path. Isn’t it time to raise the standard for your greatest asset – your health?
COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH
Other health and fitness companies might give you a personal trainer, but they don’t provide you additionally with a dietitian, routine monthly assessments, daily nutrition coaching, natural health consulting, and constant online access to all of your current and past biometrics.
CONCRETE STRUCTURE
Other personal trainers and coaches often operate on a whim, allowing you too many different holes and cracks to fall through and miss out on results. We have every tiny process, procedure, and strategy buttoned up … so you see change.
CONVENIENT DELIVERY
Other personal training companies don’t save you time by coming right to you in your home, say nothing about bringing all necessary equipment with them each and every visit.
COMFORTABLE ATMOSPHERE
Other health and fitness companies want you to perform awkward exercises in front of an entire gym audience, while we allow you to push yourself physically in the comfort of your own home.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
It is hard to think of one moment. One very important thing to me and my wife is having freedom of our time. We have achieved a point where we can work on our own schedule and because we WANT to, not because we HAVE to! Most days I go to a local Starbucks and just sit and decide on what is the single most valuable contribution I can make on my business today?
Pricing:
- We start with a One-Week Fitness Jumpstart program for $249
- After that, our long-term comprehensive programs start at $999 per month.
Contact Info:
- Address: 17304 Preston Rd. #800
Dallas, TX 75252Corporate office used for weekly team meetings. - Website: www.ElectWellness.com
- Phone: 888-330-9355
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/electwellness
