Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Johnson.
Maria, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was 23 years of age when I started my first business. That was 25 years ago. By working for a corporation, I was able to get a lot of walk-ins for hair. After three years of saving up money and building a clientele, I was able to open up my own business. It was a hair salon at first and then we added nails, glamour photography, beauty supply, clothing boutique and massage.
My aspiration has always been to help people feel better about themselves. Initially, I was going to be a psychologist. But I believe doing hair is not far from that. At the same time that I owned my hair salon, I was doing martial arts. It was the art of Kung Fu San Soo (Street-fighting technique). I then got my 7th° black belt and became an instructor in the art as well. I always liked physical activity. A few years after that, I became certified as a nutritional therapist, personal trainer, and group fitness instructor. I realized that training people and teaching classes was giving me a great fulfillment because I was actually making a difference in people’s lives just like I was when they were sitting on my stylist chair telling me all of their problems and then walking out of the salon looking and feeling better about themselves. Teaching the Martial Arts did the same thing for me because I was able to give people confidence and make them strong on the inside as well as on the outside.
And now…The Winning Image Fitness/Spa has everything under one roof and we are able to offer everything from personal training, group fitness classes, diet and nutrition and even a hair salon!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I do not believe owning your own business and starting it from scratch is never a smooth road. There is always so much to learn along the way. The only way to be the best at what you do is to appreciate what you have, to stay humble and work for it. It is never forgetting where you started and the struggles that it took getting you there. Some of the struggles I dealt with were being that I was very young. I was only 23 and not many people wanted to do business with me. It was hard to build trust with big companies for supplies and accounts. When you are that young, you don’t have credit yet and also being a minority and a female did not help. But I welcomed all of that…I truly believe that “if it doesn’t challenge you it doesn’t change you” and “if it does not break you it will not make you.” Wealth doesn’t only come in the form of money. It comes in the form of knowledge and wisdom.
Please tell us about Winning Image Fitness/Spa.
The Winning Image Fitness specializes in making you strong on the inside as well as on the outside. Everyone who is hired in, must love people, what they do, and should make continuing education a priority. And one thing you will hear a lot of people say is…”This is not your typical gym”, “This does not feel like a gym” and things like that. People feel like they belong to a community here. We love our people, educate our people and make it a point to always acknowledge and praise their hard work and efforts. Our workouts are very fun and innovative for example: Our Zumba classes are taught with black lights, disco lights, and a disco ball.
Our cycling classes include free weights and bands while on the bike. We also have the club lights in the bike room for the club cycling classes. We do a Zen cycle class where we use candlelight and black lights to give people an experience not just a class. We have what is called the virtual ride where we use a big screen and take you through various scenic places like Rome, Switzerland, National forests etc.
In our group ex. room we offer yoga with candlelight, stretch and tone where you can wear your sweats or PJs, Boot Camp, Power-Flex, kids boxing, kids Boot Camp, and much more. In our functional training room we have: The rig with monkey bars, the big tires, ropes, a sled, a boxing ring off and many punching bags. We are also very proud to be the founders of the original 8 Week Challenge.
That is where we hand hold the participants through eight weeks of personal training, group classes, and nutrition classes. It is a transformational experience and life-changing event. We also have a personal training room with free weights and machines where we train one on one or small groups. That is where we do more specific type training.
What sets us apart from others is that we are able to offer more than your big corporate gyms and at the same time stay small and exclusive so we can cater to our client’s individual needs.
Our classes are all very unique, fun, and innovative with all of the latest equipment and knowledge from our instructors. Another thing that makes is very unique is the fact that we have a hair Salon/Spa inside the facility. This enables our clients to get The Winning Image that they are looking for. We really pride ourselves on our good reputation and that our clients love us too!
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory from childhood is roller skating with my sisters. Just a feeling of being able to go fast and free, doing all those dots and not being afraid of falling is something I never forget.
Contact Info:
- Address: 12912 Paramount Blvd.
Downey Ca. 90242 - Website: winningimagefit.com
- Phone: (562) 261-3892
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Winning Image Fitness
- Facebook: Winning Image Fitness
- Yelp: Winning Image Fitness
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