Laura Wagoner speaks with Jordan Stone, owner of the F45 Training franchise in Paoli about growing up in Clinton, NJ, meeting Ralph Lauren while working in the local Polo Ralph Lauren shop in high school, attending Messiah College and strength and endurance training and launching F45, a new new training technique that claims to leave “competition and clients gasping for air,” with his father earlier this year.

Where were you born and where did you grow up?

I was born in Plainfield, New Jersey but grew up in the town of Clinton until I was 12. Clinton was a one square mile town, with a similar feel to Phoenixville.

What did your parents do?

My mom is an elementary school English teacher. My dad has been involved in the manufacturer and ecommerce industries. He started his career working for my grandfather’s business, but wanted to build his own company, so he didn’t accept the family business. He then went on to build his own business and sell it at the age of 48. Early retirement didn’t suit him well, so he dabbled in several different jobs until we landed on F45.

Do you have siblings? Where are you in the order?

I have an older brother, Devin, who is three-and-a-half years older than me. We didn’t get along when we were younger but now he calls me almost every day. I have a younger sister, Seteign, who is thirteen. My family adopted her from Ethiopia my senior year of high school when she was six. At first, she was scared of my brother and I because of how big we were compared to her. She grew up in a small village spending most of her time with only women as the men were out working. She really enjoys sports, so often her and I bond over playing soccer.

What memories do you have growing up in Clinton?

I was allowed to walk downtown by myself and I walked to school. I grew up on a cul-de-sac with a bunch of kids mine and my brother’s age. We would all hang out together and play football, bike, fish, or find other mischief. Walking to school stands out to me because it’s so unique.

My fondest memories are from the week long summer mission trips we would take with my church. My first one was shortly after Hurricane Katrina. To this day I remember one particular woman, Mrs. Louis. She had a profound impact on my worldview. She unfortunately had her roof collapse during the storm and we were there rebuilding it.  All week she worked two jobs as a single mother to provide for her two kids and greeted us with a smile at 5:00am. On Saturday, her day off, she left to volunteer at the retirement home and sang for them. I was baffled by how she was able to have the energy for that with everything going on. Growing up in an area that sometimes felt like keeping up with the Jones’, this was completely counter culture to what I had experienced and shaped the way I placed value for the rest of my life.

Did you play sports when you were younger?

When I was little, I played soccer. When I moved is when I switched to football and lacrosse. In football, I played outside linebacker and all special teams. My favorite was kickoff. We dubbed ourselves the “Hit Squad,” and my role was to try to take out the lead blockers. In lacrosse, I played in high school and at Messiah College.

What was your first job?

My brother got me a job at Polo Ralph Lauren in high school because I wanted money to buy my first car. I actually had the privilege of meeting Ralph Lauren when I was in his daughter’s candy shop at the beach. I was wearing a Polo shirt, and he commented on it. Me, not recognizing him, said, “Yeah, I work there.” We got to talking, and he got me a raise.

My next job was product management at my dad’s company. I was in charge of packing & shipping orders, inventory, and add new product lines to the company website.

What lessons did you take from those jobs that stay with you today?

Working retail in high school, I learned a lot about client relations and working with the public. It taught me that sometimes you just have to do things you don’t want to, whether it was clean the bathroom or deal with an unruly customer. I also learned you aren’t allowed to organize the shirts by ROY-G-BIV. Working for my dad, I learned a lot about what it was like to be an entrepreneur. I picked upon a lot of the foundations about running your own business.

Why did you choose  Messiah College?

Messiah College started low on my list of colleges because I was prioritizing bigger name schools. I had some big changes happen in my life that called me to Messiah, and I think it was the best decision for my life at the time.

What did you do after graduation?

After college, I worked at High Point University with their Strength and Conditioning Program. They were impressed by my motivation to drive down immediately after seeing the job posting and offered me the position on the spot! I primarily worked with men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, and lacrosse teams. High Point gave me the most technical expertise and coaching cues which prepared me for writing my own workout programs for my athletes at my next job.

From there, I applied to Kinetic Physical Therapy for the new Sports Performance Coach to be closer to my wife. I worked mainly with high school athletes, either those coming out of physical therapy that needed to get back to game strength or athletes who were going for DI scholarships. Kinetic gave me the opportunity to learn about business growth and building a brand and company. Kinetic was my last position prior to opening F45 this spring.

Who gave you your big breaks in life and set you on your current path as owner of F45?

Matt Cloutier was the first to take a chance hiring me as the sports performance coach at Kinetic. I was fresh out of college, and it was a head position. I was in charge of programming, training, recruiting, day-to-day operations, and running business projections. Matt and I had a few Skype calls and phone conversations to determine how would make the position and the program a success.

What did Matt see in you, Jordan?

I believe what set me apart from the other candidates was my analytical thought process and my out of the box problem solving. I specialized in neuromuscular adaptation, which translates to strength gains without hypertrophy. This really shaped my training style for athletes and helped us carve a niche in sports that do not necessarily want to see their athletes gain a lot of size and weight. Matt also saw that I had an appetite for learning. During the interview process we discussed current research and where we would like to see our industry head.

Who helped you start F45?

I have to credit my dad for partnering with me for F45. Being that I’m only 26 and he is the primary investor, it’s mostly his money on the line if we fail. He lives in New Jersey so he’s not there for the day-to-day like I am. While he is managing a lot of the back end finances, such as payroll, insurance, and rent, I am running every other aspect of the studio. I’m cleaning the showers and scrubbing the toilets, just like I was ten years ago at Ralph Lauren. Unlike Kinetic, where I was able to grow into the position, we had to hit the ground running at F45. I’m exceptionally grateful for my team. They go above and beyond to help me with this adventure!

Where did you get the idea to start F45?

My mom suggested that my dad and I to go into business together. He always wanted to open a gym, and my mom suggested a father-son business enhanced by my fitness background. We looked at everything from big box gyms to boutique fitness studios. A family friend worked out at F45 in State College so my dad and I took a trip out to the studio there and we fell in love with the brand.

There are multiple facets to the brand that really set it apart from the others. The workouts are all high intensity interval training and they change every single day. That means you will never repeat a workout. Not only that, but we separate into strength, endurance, and hybrid days. Those workouts are truly unique from each other. We completely change the movement patterns, tempo, work to rest timing, and music to match the specific goals of the day.

Once we decided to move forward with F45 Training, we had to decide on a territory. This proved to be trickier than we had anticipated. The first problem was to find a location that met our goal demographics of a certain population size, mean and median income, and population density. We also needed a location that was close enough to my dad for a weekly drive and so that I could get to the studio quickly if needed.

Laura and I decided it would be best to stay near her current job as an engineer for Gannett Fleming. We started trying negotiate for a space and even offered to buy a couple of locations. Excluding money, we found parking to be the biggest challenge. In Paoli, it was difficult to find a location that could accommodate roughly 30 people. We finally settled on 24 West Lancaster Paoli in July of 2018.

We brought in architects and contractors from there to tell us our buildout costs. This was quite the learning experience for my dad and me. Our initial quotes did not seem that high, and we were excited to get the process going. We hit many delays and had to invest much more money than we anticipated.

We had 350 people who signed up for the November launch and ended up not being able to open until March, resulting in two thirds of those people never showing up. Nonetheless, we eventually got the doors open and hit the ground running with about 120 different people trying us out in the first week. We continue to see our membership base grow, even through the summer and have about 80 members in our family now. I hired four staff members, each of us bringing our unique personalities, and we’ve created an environment in which our members feel as though they’re joining a family from day one.

Looking ahead, what challenges and opportunities are you facing with F45 as you continue to grow your business into 2019 and the future?

Currently we our biggest challenge is brand awareness. Even though F45 is the fastest growing fitness franchise in the world, with over 1600 studios world-wide, there aren’t very many on the east coast yet. Over the next few months, as we continue to grow, I believe we have the opportunity to change the landscape of group fitness training in our area. Between the variety of our workouts, free meal plans, individualized coaching, and specialties of each trainer, we provide an experience unlike any other. We have been consistently getting more involved with the community, and I plan on continuing to really focus on building our brand in Chester County.

Finally, Jordan, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

This is a hard one for me. Much of what I have learned has come from experiences such as the Mrs. Louis story I told. I have a memory from middle school that stands out to me, where I was complaining about not being recognized for some achievement while we were out with my grandparents. My Poppy pulled me aside and sternly told me that life just isn’t fair. He was a very strong Jewish man, who grew up in the 1940s in Brooklyn. He experienced a type of persecution that fortunately I will never experience. He went on to explain that life is about hard work and sacrifice. Sometimes you have to be twice as good to get half the recognition.