Today we’d like to introduce you to Jon Jamieson.
Hi Jon, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Growing up in a midwest small town, I have always been intrigued by the connections and personal network that is built between members of the community. I experienced this first hand being in the heart of small town, farm country in Minnesota. I grew up in southern Minnesota where I attended elementary school and high school in St. Clair, MN. This was a small town north of my hometown, which was Pemberton, MN. My family owned a small town bar and restaurant in Pemberton, and it was a great atmosphere to grow up in. My parents did a great job of balancing work life and our home life, and were a phenomenal example of hard work. They truly showed me firsthand, what it would take to run and manage your own business. I became interested in sports growing up and played football, basketball, and baseball as I attended St. Clair High School. It was during this time I realized how important exercising and staying active was to living a long, quality life. This started to direct me towards my next step in life, and I knew I wanted to be in a career field that instilled these values within a community. I also had lost my father to lung cancer at the age of 15, and that really opened up my eyes to wanting to live a healthier lifestyle. Moving on from high school, I started attending college at Minnesota State University – Mankato. Once I found a path I wanted to take, I transferred to the University of Minnesota to complete my Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology. I started as a Personal Trainer in the Recreation Center on campus in 2012 while completing my degree. I graduated in 2014 with my Bachelor’s in Kinesiology and pursued a graduate program at Florida International University in Miami. At this time, I came to realize that living back in Minnesota was important to me and I wanted to be able to influence a more small town community after gaining more experience. I moved back and started a new career path working at Life Time Fitness in their Personal Training Department. I was brought into the department as an Assistant Manager where I worked for 2.5 years. I started with the company at their Bloomington South location, and was transferred to Maple Grove where I eventually ended my career with Life Time. I started seeing my now wife during this time, and moved back to Mankato to be with her and her son. Looking at the Mankato fitness market, I saw a niche I could fulfill that Mankato did not have. This is when I decided to start JP Fitness. It was the spring of 2016 and I took a huge leap into starting personal training services out of my car. Literally filled my Volkswagen Jetta GLI with equipment, and drove around to appointments throughout the Mankato area. I built a website, met with a marketing consultant from the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and put myself out there as a business owner. This was the first step for me to get exposure into the Mankato market. I knew I wanted a brick and mortar spot, but the spot I wanted wasn’t available yet. It was in the fall of 2016 that I was able to sign a lease and build out my first Personal Training Studio. We did a grand opening in January of 2017 and started offering a space for people to utilize as a fitness center. I started the business with just a training calendar that was built out with my own time. Since then, I have added over 12 trainers and moved locations into a space that is 2.5x larger than where I started. We recently won the title of ‘Mankato’s Best #1 Fitness Center’ and have continuously grown clientele and a member base here in Mankato. My family has grown from just my wife Kelly and son Jaxon (14) to adding our daugher, Lowen (5), and another son, Romee (3). We live in the Mankato community and enjoy having a training studio that provides group training, 1:1 training, and 24/7 gym access to our members. We also added a second location in town and look to grow our brand around the region.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Some of the struggles we had in our early stages was finding staff that was reliable. We had a couple of trainers that came on board that just couldn’t handle the profession of being a Personal Trainer. After working through those situations, we found ourselves wanting to expand and then being met with the pandemic in 2020. With the continued closure of our facility, we had a real moment where I contemplated changing career paths and finding something else to do. We decided to stay the path and not be left asking ‘what if’, so we moved locations and expanded our facility to a bigger location. It was a stressful time for our family, but we ended up being well-received within the community and made it through the pandemic and grew our business to where it needed to be.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about JP Fitness?
We are a Personal and Group Training Studio located in Mankato, MN. We offer an elated fitness experience to the community with 24/7 access, training services from certified trainers, towel service, and dry heat saunas. We are most known for our 1:1 training and getting our members results. Our whole staff holds a Personal Training certification, or has education related to the field. We give a ‘cheers’ vibe to the fitness world by knowing all our members and greeting them by name when they come in the door. I am most proud of our brand being recognized as a professional, clean facility that is higher-end. We do our best to provide the greatest training services and experience to our clients when they come in. I want this to be the best part of their day.
What matters most to you? Why?
Being a man of my word is most important to me. We want to get members and clients results and we want to do that the best way possible. I try to be as forward about the process, time frame, and cost when meeting with clients and members and if I tell them something, I want to make sure I follow through on that the best way that I can.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jpfitnessmn.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jpfitnessmn/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jpfitnessmn
