Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and fitness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with David Wang, Founder of David Wang Fitness, located in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Here at David Wang Fitness, we focus on helping people transform their health and bodies through fitness in a holistic way related to training and nutrition through coaching tailored around them and their specific goals and lifestyles. We currently help people all over the world thanks to the amazing technology we have today and serve many countries, including the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and even Singapore.

Tell us about yourself

Fitness played a huge role in changing my life for the better, and this ultimately sparked an internal desire to serve others through fitness as well. I was a very shy, unhappy, and scrawny kid growing up and was bullied extensively throughout my younger years. One of the most vivid instances was being strangled and choked on a tennis court with everyone laughing around me at a summer camp. At the time, I was too weak to defend myself and saw fitness as a way to improve and get stronger and ultimately build more self-confidence as well. I was an addicted video gamer as a young teen that "escaped" reality through video games and leveling up in an outside reality through games. But at a certain point, I realized what I was doing, spending all this time playing video games, was not serving my growth, and I ultimately wanted to be able to create a more positive impact on others and the world around me. I ended up reaching out to one of my first mentors and coaches, who was an incredible athlete and coach who I looked up to, and he helped me develop greater self-belief and work ethic in the process. I ended up going on the study at USC in Human Biology with an emphasis on Applied Physiology, and eventually became the youngest Master Trainer with the National Academy of Sports Medicine and a nutritionist as well.

After college, I was admitted to USC's DPT school but decided to instead start my own training business with a single client. Today, we've been able to expand around the world during the pandemic thanks to the amazing technology we have today, and now I'm currently building a team of other coaches and trainers so that we can continue to help more people around the world. I'm driven to do what I do because of how much I know and believe fitness can transform others' lives for the better. I've seen a person we've helped come back from a disease like cancer ravaged and lacking hope, ultimately transform his body, gain confidence, and inspire many others around him. I've seen people get off medication through lifestyle changes through the work we do. And I've even seen a person gain confidence after divorce to begin dating again and find love again through the confidence they were able to attain from fitness as well. Seeing these changes and understanding how impactful fitness can be on others' lives has driven me to keep helping others through this venue.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

The biggest accomplishment for me as a business owner relates to the results I've seen from others I've helped. It's difficult to specify one specific accomplishment because there are so many that resonate with me personally, but one of the biggest more recent ones is beginning to build a team and seeing the success and incredible transformation that took place with one of my team member's first clients during the pandemic. At the time, it was nerve-wracking to begin expanding outside myself to build a team so that we could expand and help more people, but I knew that if I did not bring on more help, the impact would be limited. In the process of doing this, the client who I spoke to initially on the phone shared that he needed help after going through chemotherapy treatment that transformed his health and body for the better. Through the amazing technology we have today, we were able to transform this young man's health and fitness when he was in Texas while we were in California (all remotely) during the pandemic. He lost 20 pounds in about 4 months' time, went from not even being able to do one pull-up to doing 12 chin-ups (now, a couple of years later, he's knocking out pull-ups with 50-pound weights), and even more importantly, he did it in a way where he didn't feel like he was on a diet. In his words, he shared he felt he was "in a lifestyle." As a team, we worked together to help him achieve amazing results and have been able to help many more people since then. This experience taught me that a lot could be done individually but that building a solid team can lead to even more impact and potential over time.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

In line with the previous answer, I would say one of the most challenging things that have come with being a business owner is building a team. I've realized in the process of hiring and training, and managing people that everyone has their own vision and goals, and uniqueness, and in order to create the best performance possible, it's key to really show care toward people who are working with me while also finding the balance between being too lax and being too strict in certain circumstances. It's an honor and also a responsibility to be in a position where others are depending on me to support themselves, and it also pushes me to be a better person overall. One of my favorite reads related to leadership and the dichotomy around leadership is about the challenge of finding the balance between being a "friend" while also holding people accountable. My former successes in coaching clients helped prepare me for the process of building a team in some ways, but it's a different game when you have multiple people to manage and when you're striving to run a company and not just reaching a certain fitness goal.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Find a coach/mentor to help if possible. Starting a business has a ton of facets involved that can be challenging to navigate all on your own. There are a lot of facets in business, but that's what also makes it stimulating. Learning how to navigate marketing, sales, content creation, client support, financial management, and more can be a lot to try to figure out on your own. It's not impossible because there are a lot of resources out there, but finding a good mentor/coach can help you expedite the process and make fewer mistakes along the way.
  2. Push past the fear to expand outside yourself if you want to create a bigger impact. You may be able to do a lot alone, but with a great team, the potential is far greater.
  3. Embrace the game and the challenges. Building a business can have a lot of ups and downs. If there's one thing I've learned to embrace, it's simply to focus on staying more grounded and not getting too high or too low. I've learned that as long as you keep learning and as long as you keep growing from the challenges and mistakes, you'll continue to grow and ultimately continue to win.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.davidwangfitness.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidwangz1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidwangz/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-wang-288352264/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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