Today we’d like to introduce you to Todd Vande Hei.
Todd, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My career was spent primarily in manufacturing. I moved to Southern California to run a publicly-traded manufacturing company resulting in chronic headaches, neck pain, arrhythmia, insomnia, low back problems and high blood pressure, all related to the stresses of the job. After a conflict with the Board in 2005, I was fired, signed a severance agreement, and moved into semi-retirement, spending most of my working hours developing my real estate portfolio. By 2010, I lost everything, fell into a deep depression, and started looking for a job–for the first time in 20 years–to support my young family. While putting my resume together, I was contacted by an ex-personal trainer of mine. He was about to lose his business and asked for help. I told him I would help him until I found a job which would likely take me out of the state.
After a month of cleaning up the books and getting a sense of how the operations affected the company’s financials, I signed a partnership agreement with Brad Davidson. We began as a personal training business, added nutrition, then supplements, then chiropractic. As I experienced our combined services, all of my chronic illnesses faded away. Within six months, they were gone. Brad’s dedication to using exercise and nutrition for better health saved me from a life of constant pain. But because the business has such low barriers to entry, and therefore competitive, we struggled. In gradually understanding the unsolved problems in our business, and for whom it was most valuable, I convinced Brad to shut his old business down, start a new brand which we would trademark, focus on business leaders and stress rather than his passion which were young athletes. He agreed. We opened Stark on January 2nd, 2011. After another five years of struggle, I told Brad I no longer wanted to be his partner: he wanted to be a writer and motivational speaker. We tried for three years to find a way to turn that passion into a lead generation source with very little success.
Within a couple of weeks, we had an agreement to part ways. As I told him, I wasn’t sure we would survive. I resigned myself to the reality that if we didn’t, I would get a job somewhere else and make a lot more money. After working to stabilize the business for a couple of months, Tyler Mounce, one of our key managers, convinced be, due to our Christian beliefs, that Stark (or me) should become more charitable. I literally took a leap of faith and started donating money to charities in our community. That sparked a community following which drove exceptional growth. We also added a legal structure called a management services organization, which allows Stark to operate as a single entity while providing medical services. From that point, we were able to, under a single HIPAA umbrella, allow for collaboration across disciplines (between licensed and unlicensed professionals) to enhance the fitness and health experience at Stark. We began conducting orthopedic assessments, running labs, and doing DEXAscans on our students (our term for clients). 2 1/2 years later, we opened our 2nd location and we’re presently searching for a 3rd. Today, because of our ability to unearth the underlying health issues preventing an individual from reaching his or her goals, Stark is truly what personal training wishes it was.
Has it been a smooth road?
No. It has been scary: mental health issues; a bad partnership; no industry experience; undercapitalized; regularly not paying myself; a broken marriage. Out of that disaster Stark has blossomed into a truly beautiful small business which regularly changes lives while contributing to the community well beyond its size.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Stark employs science, technology, and naturopathic medicine to help you become the best version of you. We are known for putting entrepreneurs and executives back together again, just like me. I’m most proud of the astounding changes among our population of adults 35 and older. We tackle common but under-treated issues like menopause and low testosterone. We can fix your low back pain so you can begin exercising again and lose the weight that exacerbates that pain. We can prove to you that age is just a number and have thousands of pictures to prove it. When you go to another gym to hire a personal trainer, you get someone who is likely very good at sales. When you come to Stark, you get a team, none of whom are good at sales. And that team collaborates to bring you the very best plan, along with an assigned coach to lead you to your goals.
We also do a very unique, annual charity competition called The Stark Naked Challenge. You can see our 2020 winner on a billboard (installed two days ago) on Newport Blvd and 16th street in Costa Mesa. He’s 55. We raised $230k for local charities this year. Not our best, but…..COVID.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
If you’re referring to L.A., yes I do. We intend to expand there. If someone is just starting out, I would recommend they learn about business, not just fitness. Because this is a very tough business in which to succeed.
Pricing:
- An average of $2,000 per month spent on all of our services and products
Contact Info:
- Address: 17524 Von Karman Avenue
- Website: starklife.us
- Phone: 9497227070
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @testodderone and @Starklife.us
- Facebook: starklife.us
- Twitter: starklife.us
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/stark-irvine-3
Image Credit:
Lauren Hillary
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