The St. John’s Board of Trade is a community of more than 700 members, combining the collective power of industries, sectors, and diverse perspectives. In this series, we tap into that community spirit to share experiences, support each other, and celebrate successes by asking business owners three questions.

First up, we asked Jon-Erik Kawamoto, Founder and Co-Owner of JK Conditioning about the opportunities and challenges facing the fitness industry.  

Q: Tell us about your team and your business.
JKConditioning is a local health and fitness business that has been positively impacting people’s lives since 2013. We offer small group personalized training, nutrition consulting and run coaching. With a welcoming and non-intimidating gym environment, we teach people about their bodies, overcome obstacles and help them achieve feats of strength or pain-free movement that they never thought possible. Our philosophy does not support a before or after, but continuous improvement, in the gym, and all aspects of life.

Q: What challenges are you solving in your industry that can inspire others?
Coaching in the fitness industry has traditionally been done as either a 1-on-1 workout or in a class setting where all the participants perform a bootcamp style workout. At JKConditioning, we offer personalized group training, where small groups of people can work out in the same session but reap the benefits of a uniquely designed workout. We coach groups up to four but based on a prior assessment and goal setting session, we design customized workouts based on the client’s needs, goals, interests, and current ability. We set up the exercises, re-coach exercise technique or teach brand new exercises, track weights, sets and reps, and encourage clients throughout their 60-minute session. Therefore, it doesn’t matter who else is in your session. It can be a client who has been with us for over five years or a client with completely different goals from yours. Our supportive fitness community combined with patient and kind coaches creates a welcoming and encouraging gym environment, that is suitable for all ages and abilities. The small group sessions are more cost-effective for the client and also time-efficient for our business. We can see more clients per day but know that we’re still giving them a great workout because all the workouts are designed with the client in mind.

Q: How do you use social media or other “free” forms of advertising to promote your business?
We use social media as a means of communication to keep our clients informed on schedule changes and announcements but more importantly, we use it to further develop the JKConditioning fitness community. We share Liftiversaries (yearly client anniversaries), personal bests, success stories, motivational quotes, recipes, published articles, and blog posts.