Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Johnson.
Mike, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I turned to personal fitness training in an effort to share with others, the same life enhancing benefits that I, myself, had found in my voyage to better fitness and living. After living some years, in an unhealthy and reckless manner, I decided to turn myself around in hopes of being a better example for my children, living a long life and also having a career that afforded me the flexibility to spend more time with my family. I was fairly young and wasn’t in bad health, particularly, but there were many with health issues in my family (especially once they hit middle age or so). And I’d been “going hard” as they say, in terms of the nightlife. I didn’t like where I was going or how I was feeling, or the choices I was making. I wanted to be more conscious about my physical health proactively, as well as my spiritual and mental state as it related to my lifestyle choices and behavior. It really started with me doing research into the American food industry and exploring how most of our food is processed. This caused me to be more conscious of what I was putting into my body. I stopped drinking. I stopped partying. I stopped eating fast food. I then became more deliberate about what I was doing WITH my body in terms of rest, exercise, supplementation, etc. The whole process sparked such an intrinsic interest and connection within me that I made the decision to quit my job (in retail sales, which I’d had for years) and pursue a career in the field of fitness. I obtained my certification through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and got my first jobs working at franchise gyms while training independently on the side. Shortly after, I started my own company and transitioned from working for myself part time to full time.
Has it been a smooth road?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. In this field, I’ve had to balance the pros and cons of working for myself versus someone else; large big box gyms versus small gyms, branding/marketing, and promoting myself; lost of things. I found this profession just as it was beginning to boom nationwide a few years ago. That was good in a sense, but the market is now flooded with personal trainers on every corner and every other Instagram post, and 5 boot camps at every park. I get to have the greater, deeper, joy of a career that I absolutely love, every single day, that doesn’t feel like work. But financially, it has been inconsistent, sometimes a struggle. While pursuing it as my own company, I’ve had to wear all hats, learning business and branding and marketing while also trying to draw clientele in an inundated market. Working for branded gyms presents a challenge of being underpaid or being expected to propagate a fitness culture that doesn’t mirror your own philosophies and values.
Has there been people or an institution that has played a pivotal role in your career?
My wife has been a major support throughout my career; financial support and moral support. She has the standard 9-5 job with benefits that’s helped provide stability while I strive to follow my passion. Even so, there have still been challenges financially. And when those times come and/or I had second thoughts about if making this big leap was the right decision, she supported me and reassured me. She has faith in me and my vision. My family played the pivotal role in my career. Without them, I don’t know I would be at this point in my life. The catalyst that caused me to stop the self-destructive life path I was on before I went into personal training and fitness was my family. I wanted to do and be better for them; be ALIVE for them. That’s what brought me to fitness and motivated me to be serious and committed to living a better life. And they keep me going every single day.
What type of clients or projects do you look forward to most?
My ideal clients are honestly “everyday” people. There are trainers that specialize in working with athletes, fitness competitors, models, etc. But I love showing REAL people how to reach their goals, watching them progress, see them doing things they never thought they could, seeing them excited about watching their bodies change from their hard work for maybe the first time ever. I pride myself on being a real person myself, with all the responsibilities and time constraints that the average person has and uses as the reason that they’re NOT as healthy as they’d like to be. The ideas to show that it IS possible for them, for anyone to get healthy, to lose weight, to get stronger, to take charge of your life… That you don’t have to be an athlete, a model, a superstar, a wealthy person, that person you’d describe as a gymaholic, etc. I believe it is exactly why my favorite project thus far is Fit Kamp (https://youtu.be/G6sPqFJT3nc), my boot camp group fitness class. It was my first, and longest running, branded group fitness class, and it gave me the opportunity to do exactly what I just described with a great group of people.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would’ve sought out a mentor in this field, someone to coach and guide me along the way in this field. Without it, I’ve had to figure out a lot of this on the fly, whether for better or for worse. And I’m still learning and having to learn so much as I go, in terms of the business.
Pricing:
- free consultation and initial assessment workout
- $40 per training session
- $10 per person group training classes
Contact Info:
- Website: fitkingfitnessatl.tumblr.com
- Phone: (678) 650-6845
- Email: mike@fitkingfitness.com
- Instagram: @fitkingfitness
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/fitkingpersonalfitness
Image Credit:
Photographer Sokay Ok Yoon sokaiokyoon@gmail.com
Photographer ShuKeiYu shukeiyu.photography@gmail.com
