Chris Lingham is the owner of Impact Performance & Fitness, a Voorhees NJ-based company that provides Personal Training, Performance Training & Nutrition Coaching to Men, Women, and Athletes looking to build muscle, lose weight, and perform better.
Since 2013, Impact Performance has consistently delivered life-changing transformations to it’s customers and athletes.
For more details, visit their website here.
Here we sit down with Chris, to know a bit more about his journey as an entrepreneur.
Tell us a little more about your journey as an entrepreneur – how did you get started? What inspired you?
Chris: My journey into training and gym ownership began as a college student at Georgia Southwestern State University. I was wrapping up my College Baseball Career and finishing with my degree when I started a lot of hands-on work in the field. I originally wanted to stay in school, get a master’s and teach kinesiology and exercise physiology. The hands-on work that I was doing in my degree led me to coach people and seeing them become successful showed me that helping others might be a better use of my time on this planet. So I went home and started my business in my parents’ backyard shed. Grew a small personal training operation into owning my own business and leasing a space in one of the more affluent towns in New Jersey. We have now been there for 11 years and have helped thousands of men, women and athletes to transform.
What entrepreneurial tricks have you discovered to keep you focused and productive?
Chris: I follow a lot of people who are ahead of me. I read a ton of books and try to implement things as fast as I can. I never had a business background so learning everything was new to me. Early on I started investing in products or masterminds to get the help that I needed. Doing so helped me get in rooms around people who were doing big things. This motivated me to get better and be at the top of my game. I was very successful in sports, so there is always this burning desire to be the best I can be. To do that you have to learn from the best. Swallow your pride and get better every day.
When it comes to productivity, I just try to get up early before everyone else is up and knock out important tasks. Before I was married or had a kid, I could work all day. Now in this season of my life, I find that having a supportive team and blocking out alone time are the key things that help us move the dial forward.
I am not the most orderly person, so just like anything, I try to find people who are and learn from them. My biggest productivity hack is to learn from other productive people and try to mimic what they do until it becomes a new skill.
How do you stay organized with such a busy schedule?
Chris: Staying organized was easy when I did everything. Now I have to reverse-engineer everything I do and create systems for my team to do the same. The first thing I did was hire coaches to teach my sessions. This allowed me to focus on program design and running the business. Now I am in the process of teaching my higher-level coaches to take over the program design. I love teaching a new strategy in multiple ways because not everyone learns the same.
Example: When I was trying to build my sales team, I created a script, an offer and a sales process for them to follow. I then would train them on that procedure and record the video training for them. Then I would record some of my sales so that they could listen to how I executed the script. I don’t like robots. I like free thinkers who can take a process and adjust it so that they feel comfortable doing it.
If you had a magic stick, what are 3 things you’d wish for?
Chris: #1 Have people love more and be nicer. I think that people go through some things in life and it leaves them angry. That then gets pushed onto other people too much. If we could love each other more, the world would be a better place.
#2 Give more opportunity to less fortunate people. There are a lot of superstars out there stuck in crappy situations and they don’t believe in themselves. With the right opportunity, they can make their dreams a reality.
#3 Bring more people closer to their faith. I don’t care what religion or spirituality you follow but having something to believe in, a higher purpose can really serve as a compass for people. I know that the closer I am to god the better human I am in today’s society. It teaches you to be loving, giving and accepting which the third is probably the most important of them all.
If you were to write a book about yourself, what would you name it?
Chris: That is a tough one but I would go with “Rise and Grind.” That’s sort of a play on words. Describing the rise in my career but highlighting the fact that you need to wake up every day and grind to get yours. Life isn’t handed to you, you have to get up and get after it.
What motivates you?
Chris: What motivates me is simple. Being the best that I can be. I will never settle for average or mediocre effort. I always wanted to be the best and I try to display that in my actions every day. There is a sense of fulfillment you get inside when you know you are putting in more work than everyone else. I want to show people that it doesn’t matter where you come from, you can be great if you decide that’s what you want to be.
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made
Chris: The best investment I have ever made was in my education. A lot of people downplay college but for me, it put me in the right situation. College taught me how to become a student, and how to learn, and now that I am done with school, I use what I learned to get better every day. Once you become a student, you can remain one. So being a student of life, learning new ways to do business, or learning how to help people all stems from my investment in my education.
What key activities would you recommend entrepreneurs invest their time in?
Chris: The key activities that help me the most are working out and doing recovery work like sauna or ice bath. I find that reading, studying and taking courses is also key. I am always listening to a book or somebody on YouTube during my spare time. When you take care of yourself, you increase your capacity to learn more and learn faster. So working hard and recovering hard has always been my motto.
What is your ‘one-sentence’ piece of advice you’d like to give to someone who wants to become an entrepreneur, coach, or business owner?
Chris: Work hard and expect the unexpected!
To keep up to date with Chris and his journey, connect with him on Instagram.