Every month, Club Solutions sits down with an industry expert to share in their wealth of knowledge. In the February issue, we sat down with Jon Cheung, the owner at Evolve Strength.
1. How did you get started in the fitness industry?
I grew up playing sports and had a strong desire to learn about the human body. I completed my bachelor’s degree in physical education and went on to train many varsity and professional football teams before going out on my own and opening Evolve Strength.
2. What’s been a key to your organization’s success? What are you most proud of?
One of our keys to success has been pushing away from being a traditional fitness model and more into a health and wellness facility. We needed to differentiate ourselves enough to not get trapped in the race to the lowest price like so many fitness chains are trapped in. With the integration of health care, I’m very proud to be one of the only large-format facilities able to offer such a wide variety of health, medical and fitness services all under the same roof.
3. What has been one of the biggest accomplishments of your career?
Creating a brand that many want to be involved with. It was an incredible feeling when others wanted to be franchise partners with Evolve.
4. What has been one of the biggest challenges you have faced in your career? And how did you overcome it?
By far the biggest challenge was navigating our company through COVID-19. Where we live, we had a total of eight openings and closures spanning 18 months. Being able to navigate through the changes and demands put upon the fitness industry was difficult, but we overcame it by ensuring we had our processes in place in case we needed to adapt. In doing so, we were the only fitness chain that kept its doors open due to our medical usage and licenses within the facility.
5. What is one lesson you have learned that other fitness professionals can learn from?
Consistently test your ideas and analyze the outcome. If you don’t test, you will not know what will work and what can lead to success. By continually testing your ideas, you force yourself into uncomfortable situations where you learn very quickly what you need to be successful. If you wait until your idea is perfect to test it, you’ll never reach a point where you’re satisfied to implement it.
6. Tell us one fact about yourself others may not know.
I take my time reading books, averaging about two non-fiction books a year. It takes me a significant amount of time as I try out almost every suggestion the author makes to improve myself or to implement a strategy within our business. The authors have great ideas, so I want to make the most of them.
Connect with Jon Cheung on LinkedIn.
