The Gymfluencer story demonstrates just how life can spin on a sixpence. Back in 2019 Jonathan’s long-term outlook was extremely bleak. Weighing in at 30 stone, racked with dark thoughts and locked in a seemingly inescapable emotional tailspin, Jonathan had come to the conclusion that he needed to seek out some life insurance in the vain hope that this might provide his mum and sister some much-needed financial support down the line.
What he discovered was that not only was he uninsurable, but according to the doctor who assessed him, he was unlikely to live past thirty-five. In terms of self-worth, Jonathan hit rock bottom, convinced no-one would even really miss him. Fortunately, a chance heart-to-heart chat with his young niece quite literally spun his life 360, pointing out that meant the world many; a well-timed revelation that gave him purpose, drive and renewed energy.
Today Jonathan is 37 and 15 stone lighter, in truth he couldn’t be happier! His personal life has moved on whilst his pioneering Gymfluencers operation has turned traditional influencer thinking on its head; both in terms of effectiveness and everyday affordability!
THE BIG IDEA: Having decided that he wanted and more importantly needed to turn his life around, Jonathan embraced the gym, not in a casual give-it-a-go style; more of a 365 evenings in a row commitment; working late at night with a personal trainer away from prying eyes. Over the next year Jonathan refused any ‘cheat breaks or’ socialising time-outs, opting to eat the same three meals every day over this timeframe. It was during this relentless drive to shed weight that it dawned on Jonathan just how many indie gyms were struggling to keep their heads above water and how many incredible personal trainers were struggling to make ends meet. At the same time soulless, money-grabbing online fitness websites were on the march churning out pedestrian, generic content on sites awash with relentless ads.
Gymfluencers in its initial guise is a meticulously assembled one-stop online pitstop where a nationwide spectrum of indie gyms are independently reviewed and assessed. At the same time there’s an extensive database of carefully vetted, personal trainers which can be accessed for free. This is a site where it’s feasible to unearth all manner of enticing temporary/one day free gym passes and generous membership discounts to convince long-time ‘gym dodgers’ and short-term ‘gym absentees’ to reacquaint themselves with the manifold benefits of a regular, active gym regime. Throw in some impartially assessed brand launches and reviews, read the diverse insights and motivations of compelling healthier living brand founders and benefit from the handy provision of a free macro calculator to help shape future calorie avoiding meal plans and you have all the key ingredients of an exceptional interactional community.
Only 14 months after launch, sales for the chosen brands were accelerating at pace, Google was pro-actively applauding the content and the longer-term scope and growth for such a health-conscious agency was there for all to see. Today in 2024 Gymfluencers has extended its reach to 14 countries where healthier living brands are making real headway; markets that include: India, Australia, Dubai, Brazil and perhaps most importantly of all, North America.
In Spring 2023, Gymfluencers went one step further; extrapolating their learnings to create the gymfluencers.agency as the influencer community arm of the business. Of course, the potential of credible influencers has been understood for some while, leading to an explosion of in-the-know individuals with credible followings. Today, the online explosions of so-called opinion formers means it’s harder than ever to separate the wheat from the chaff, let alone keep spiralling quotes in check. The gymfluencers.agency with its phenomenal contacts list is better placed than most to assign quality huddles of the right online spokespeople to the right brands, providing fair yet competitive prices that are ‘challenger brand’ friendly. Big projects already include creating content for Fitness First UK, as well as being invited to showcase the grand opening of Pure Gym (Dubai). For now the lion’s share of the gymfluencer.agency’s work is UK focused, however ambitious plans are I place for North America and the United Arab Emirates.
A quick trawl of the headline gymfluencers site shows that the online agency works with trusted healthier living brands as diverse as Hunter & Gather, Freja (bone broth), Hello Fresh, The Body Shop, The Curators, Sipgood and Lululemon (to name but a few). Jonathan and his team love the opportunity to work with both category luminaries and young pretenders, although they steer well clear of any angry brands looking for high profile platforms from where they can trash-talk their category rivals.
Latest numbers suggest that gymfluencers has worldwide access to 2.8m worldwide visitors a year, forging over 100,000 business collaborations, which has already resulted in 450+ mutually beneficial brand alliances.
As you might have already guessed by now is that Jonathan isn’t a man to sit on his hands. In 2024 his business purchased e-comm, lifestyle retailer ‘A Little Find’ whose impressive loyalist following wasn’t translating into the bottom-line sales the business merited. Jonathan is determined to broaden the appeal and occasions for his brand within this sector with the far-reaching skills set of his team well placed to unlock the lifestyle retailer’s full potential.
2024 also sees Gymfluencers become a key sponsor of this September’s UK Nourish awards, the biggest award for nutritional integrity and innovation within food, drink and supplements . ‘We’re on a good financial footing,’ confirms Jonathan, ‘so now seems the right time to throw our net a bit wider and give a little back to the community in which we operate. This is why we’ll be giving £5k of free online services to one winning business.’
For Jonathan and the gymfluencers team winning doesn’t come at all costs, which is why the business refuses to succumb to intrusive spammy ads, bannering and paid for advertorial, which would offer enticing additional income streams yet dilute the business’s unrivalled quality content.
‘The real pipedream vision, which is still a little way off,’ concludes Jonathan, ‘would be to open a free-to-use gym supported by like-minded sponsors, where the NHS could direct high risk, obese patients to partake in life-changing health regimes; turning my personal journey onto a tangible, hands-on footing.’
