IAM006 – Entrepreneur & COO Makes Wellness a Priority for Companies & Corporations

Hailing from Australia, Sammy is the co-founder and COO of Fitspot Wellness (Techstars '16), a certified Pilates instructor, and lifelong lover of fitness. After finding it frustrating to stay healthy in a typical 9-to-5 environment, she and her business partner, Jon, teamed up to create Fitspot, a leading provider of workplace wellness. Fitspot is a fully managed wellness partner that provides on-site fitness classes, workshops, massages, meditation, health screenings, and virtual services for employees around the country. Fitspot is on a mission is to help companies reap the benefits of a healthier, happier workforce.

• CEO Hack: Calendar and lists / Career Coaching
• CEO Nugget: Celebrate every win
• CEO Defined: Don't care about the title and being a thought-leader

Website: http://www.fitspotwellness.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/fitspotwellness
Facebook: http://facebook.com/fitspotwellness
Instagram: http://instagram.com/fitspotwellness
Sammy's Instagram: http://instagram.com/sammycourtright

Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:26

Hello, hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today I have Sammy from Fitspot Wellness. Sam, it's awesome to have you on the show today.

Sammy Courtright 0:39

Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, what I wanted to do was just read a quick bio of Sammy so you kind of get to opportunity to learn a little bit more about her. And Sammy is hailing from Australia. She's the co-founder and CEO of Fitspot Wellness, which was in TechStars 2016. And they currently have offices in New York, Georgia, and Los Angeles. Now Sammy is a certified Pilates instructor and a lifelong lover of fitness. After finding it frustrating to stay healthy in a typical nine-to-five environment she and her business partner John teamed up to create Fitspot the leading provider of workplace wellness. The Fitspot is a fully managed wellness partner that provides on-site fitness classes, workshops, massages, meditation, health screenings, and virtual services for employees across the country. Now Fitspot is on a mission to help companies reap the benefits of a healthier, happier workforce. Sammy is super awesome to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the IAMCEO community?

Sammy Courtright 1:39

I sure am.

Gresham Harkless 1:41

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, the first question that I have for you is just could you kind of build a little bit more upon your bio and tell us your CEO story? And what kind of led you to start your business?

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Sammy Courtright 1:51

Definitely. So John, my co-founder, and I met in Los Angeles about six years ago, when we were working at a company called Never Rest, John had started that company. And it was a service where we matched personal trainers with clients around the Los Angeles area, I was running the operational side of that. So coordinating all the logistics between the clients and the trainers. And from that, that's really where Fitspot got started. So we launched in 2014, as a b2c mobile app that connected trainers to clients that wanted personal training services. From that we did a ton of customer interviews, and we learned that our clients wanted us to bring this experience on-site to their employees. And they wanted much more than just fitness. They wanted educational workshops, they wanted painting classes, cooking classes, and pretty much everything under the wellness umbrella they wanted us to bring on-site. So after we completed TechStars, we shifted our business more towards the b2b focus. And that's where we are today.

Gresham Harkless 2:52

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And and I guess what can you tell us a little bit more about what exactly you're doing with FISMA? What services are you guys providing?

Sammy Courtright 3:00

Sure. So hypothetically, let's pretend you're a client of ours, right? So you're interested in bringing wellness to the workplace, but you have no idea where to start. We would survey all of your colleagues and employees to get a better idea of what they would like from a wellness program. So that can be anything from massages, to painting classes, to educational workshops on financial wellness, to meditation classes. Whatever it is that's under the wellness umbrella, we want to learn what your team wants.

From there, we built out a customized program that's meant only for you and only for your company to make sure we get the most engagement from that. So the services can pretty much range from anything but we'd like to start with all of the services with like a biometric screening or a health risk assessment to really understand what your goals are and set a baseline for where you are today.

From there, we open up the programming and you can participate in anything that you want from those on-site services, as well as our virtual programming. So we have a portal where employees can log in to RSVP to classes to participate in online webinars to access our virtual content. So you can be an active participant as an on-site physically active or you can be virtually active with the fitspot.

Gresham Harkless 4:14

I love that, I love the fact that it's not kind of like a size that fits all but you guys actually figure out exactly what am I certain office or a certain group of employees or team actually needs and how they view wellness and fitness and then you guys kind of customize that based off of whoever you're talking with.

Sammy Courtright 4:30

Yeah, definitely. We think that's really the way to go about this, especially in this world where you know, we've gotten millennials, many millennials, excuse me that is in the workplace and, you know, they will want something a little bit different. Everyone feels like you know, I'm not necessarily into yoga, but I really like meditation or I would never try kickboxing, but I think that a cooking class might really resonate with me. It's making sure that we can hit on everything that someone would want to participate in. That customized programming is really what makes a kind of

That's a standout.

Gresham Harkless 5:01

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And that brings me to my next question. And this might be what you kind of spoke on is, what do you feel kind of makes you unique? Or makes Fitspot unique over other competitors? Potentially?

Sammy Courtright 5:10

Sure, sure. So there's a couple of things. Yes, you're absolutely right, our customized programming is quite unique. And that's something that really makes us stand out in this marketplace offering something for everyone. That's definitely a big competitive factor. Another one is, is that honestly, there really isn't a singular vendor for everything wellness. If you were trying to go and build out a wellness program yourself, you would have to use one vendor for onsite classes, one vendor for biometric screenings, and another vendor for technology. With Fitspot, we've created this wellness ecosystem that people can access through a singular subscription. And that really makes us stand out.

Gresham Harkless 5:52

Yeah, that makes perfect sense, like a one-stop shop to sort of speak where you're able to kind of get all those resources that you have, where you would have had to spend a lot of time to go to all these different places and speak with all these different people to kind of combine all that. So that's pretty awesome that you guys do that.

Sammy Courtright 6:07

Yep.

Gresham Harkless 6:07

Now, one of the awesome things that we get to do is ask kind of for an SEO hack. And this might be an app or this might be a book or something that you use on a regular everyday basis that you feel makes you more efficient and effective as a CEO.

Sammy Courtright 6:21

Okay, so my calendar is my life. I know that sounds really basic, but lists creating lists, writing out lists, and having everything scheduled out, including my day scheduled out in my calendar makes a really big difference for me. So I do weekly career coaching with a career coach, and it's someone that I meet with virtually on a weekly basis, and we touch on things that I really care about, or I want to grow. When I become or think about being a leader at this company, that can be everything from learning to listen to people's opinions better to create a more fun collaborative culture here at Fitspots, any of the things that I really care about or that are important to me, as a leader, I get to experience and grow with this career coach.

So that's something that I've really, really enjoyed. And it's hard, but owning your own business, you know, you really don't feel like you have anyone to turn to. And there are days where you just want to complain about everything. And then there are days when you're on top of the world. It's a bit of a roller coaster. So these weekly coaching sessions really keep me even-keeled and helped me better digest, you know, this wild ride.

Gresham Harkless 7:27

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I mean, as you mentioned, like a calendar is definitely if it's not, I always say it's not on my calendar, it doesn't exist. So I definitely agree with that and have an opportunity to kind of go through this roller coaster ride, but get that outside perspective of somebody that maybe during your lows can kind of remind you of your highs and when you're going on your highs also remind you of maybe some blind spots that you're not seeing seems like that is definitely been beneficial in helping you out.

Sammy Courtright 7:51

Yeah, definitely. And the coach that I work with focuses particularly on startups at this stage. So the Series A, you know, they understand the type of stress that comes with raising a round of financing for your business. So it's been really great. I feel like it really beneficial for me, and something that's helped me kind of survive this whole startup world.

Gresham Harkless 8:10

Yes, that's always good to know. So one of the next things I wanted to ask you was just about what I call a CEO nugget, which might be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice that you would give to another entrepreneur or business owner,

Sammy Courtright 8:22

Celebrate the small wins. Celebrate everyone really something that is as small as hey, guess what everyone showed up on time to this session, which is definitely relevant to something that we do, or we change the Brita filter, high five, everyone, let's celebrate that.

I know that sounds so silly. But if you don't, we have really crazy milestones as a startup that everyone is expected to obtain and exceed. And it can get really overwhelming if you don't take that step back and celebrate the considerably smaller things that that you crush on the way to get there.

So celebrating the small wins is definitely something that I don't do all the time. But I'm really trying to get better at doing and that's something that I want to kind of share with everyone. But I'm sure people are aware of that.

Gresham Harkless 9:09

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I know myself, I anybody who's like really driven and ambitious and has like really far goals or high goals, I should say, definitely you have to remember to kind of celebrate those, those small victories like the Beretta filter that you mentioned, or anything that happens, because it's those little small things that add up to those big goals. So you have to kind of remember that.

Sammy Courtright 9:27

Yeah, and it's really I feel like this, this environment that we have in the startup world is, you know, you read of all of these incredible companies like the Instagrams, the Facebook's of the world that you know, have only been around for X amount of years and raised X amount of money and are valued at Y and Isn't that insane and incredible growth and you sit back and look at your business and you're like, oh, man, I'm just not that yet. Or I'm not there or maybe my business won't go in that direction.

We'll go in a slightly different direction. So there's a ton of pressure that you feel and it's funny through the interview process when you're bringing on new candidates, you know, to potentially work at your Fitspot, you know, everyone's like, Oh, startups Yeah, like Facebook like Instagram. Are you guys like that? I'm like, oh, you know, I hope so. But we're just not there yet. But we're working at it. So there is a lot of pressure. So celebrating those small wins makes it a lot more digestible.

Gresham Harkless 10:20

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And yeah, and understanding that success is different for everybody. It's also important, especially as I'm sure you know, the in the wellness industry, I'm a candidate and depending on what person every person that kind of walks through the door.

Sammy Courtright 10:33

Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 10:33

So that brings me to my next question. I know you touched on how wellness is sometimes different for different people. But one of the awesome things that we get to do is I get to ask people, kind of like what being a CEO means because one of the things we hope to do on this podcast is definitely to redefine the word CEO, where it means different things to different people. So I wanted to ask you specifically, what being a CEO means to you?

Sammy Courtright 10:55

Sure. So I'm going to flip that and say, co-founder, because technically, I'm the CEO and co-founder of Fitspot, but we honestly don't care about titles here. So that's probably one thing not to care about the title, right, you're all working for someone or with someone towards something.

But being a thought leader is really important to me. And it's really important for this business because the wellness space is nothing new. In particular, corporate wellness is nothing, you know, you know, it's been around for a very long time. But the way that we the way that Fitspot is redefining corporate wellness is new in this space. So really establishing ourselves as thought leaders that we know what we are talking about, we know why this is beneficial for your business or, or for your you know, property management group, or whoever we're engaging with the fact that we can set ourselves up to be a real leader in this space is something that's important to me, because then people will trust us, they will understand what we're trying to sell, and they will be on board, right?

Gresham Harkless 11:58

Yeah. And that's very, very important. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Sammy, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. And speaking with us, I wanted to give you the mic, so to speak one more time, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to kind of tell our readers or our listeners. And then lastly, if people are interested in hearing more about Fitspot, how best could they get a hold of you and also learn more about Fitspot?

Sammy Courtright 12:20

Sure, one of the things I always get asked is How can I implement, you know, the smallest amount of wellness into my day? You know, what does that look like? For me, I don't have time or it's just doesn't fit into my schedule. And I always like to say every small thing counts, right?

So so taking that walking meeting, if you could walk around, you know, the office with your colleagues to take that meeting versus sitting down in a conference room or even with calls, I like to take walking calls, it's a great way to kind of get my mind rejuvenated and thinking while I'm on my feet. Every small bit counts. You know, if you set unrealistic expectations or goals, when it comes to being well, whether that be I want to sleep better or reduce stress or spend more time with my family or, you know, eat better workout more, whatever it may be.

Take it in doses and reward yourself along the way. It's really important that you are proud of yourself for whatever stuff that you can make. Make in the right direction. No one's perfect, right? So be realistic with yourself and set those small goals, and goals and crush them.

Gresham Harkless 13:19

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And how can people find out about Fitspot?

Sammy Courtright 13:23

Sure. So we have a website, www.fitspotwellness.com. And if they want to get in contact with me directly, my email is sammy@fitspotwellness.com

Gresham Harkless 13:36

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And what we'll do is we'll have those links down in the show notes just in case anybody wants to check and click through to speak with you or find out more about Fitspot. But Sammy, thank you so much again for taking time out in the awesome information gave to us and I really truly hope you have a good rest of the day.

Sammy Courtright 13:52

Of course. Thank you you too. Thanks for having me.

Outro 13:55

Thank you for listening to the IAMCEO podcast powered by blue 16 media tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co IAMCEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE And leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co This has been the IAMCEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Thank you for listening

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