Starting Imprecisely
When Joanna and I first started Precision Training in 2016, there was a lot that was missing.
We didn’t have a website for almost 3 months.
We didn’t have a business phone number for almost 6 months.
We didn’t have a shower for over a year.
Neither of us had ever heard of SEO and both of us were well aware that we were over our heads.
The funny thing is: we had towels. Clean white rolled up towels that waited for clients in a wicker basket.
I honestly remember typing into Google: “softest towels”.
To me, the towels were a necessity if I wanted to have a “quality training experience”.
If you would’ve told me in 2016 that by 2020 I’d be instructed by safety experts to remove towels from my gym in order to sustain a “quality training experience”
-- I would not have believed you.
Pragmatism aside… Removing those bright white towels was indeed a dark day.
Thankfully, I’ve had incredible support through every step of this journey as an entrepreneur.
My wife and I make a great team. Joanna is patient, kind, and she really loves good wine.
My hunch is: wine has helped develop her “quality first” motive.
When Joanna & I met, she was on a much different course than what destiny had planned.
In 2010, she was a student becoming a teacher. She waited tables in the evenings and developed her sensitive palette for liquid quality in the wee hours of the night and sometimes morning. She wasn’t planning to meet her future husband, father of our two kids, business partner, and a dude who never drank wine (I still don’t).
However, shortly after we met… we eventually made a connection.
From my experience, Joanna’s deeper rooted qualities are:
Resilience - aka: stubborn AF. When she cares about something or someone - she will not quit on them or let them give up
Gracefulness - she forgives me All. The. Time. and has never rubbed it in my face once
Skepticism - she does not let me make thoughtless decisions -- there are always so many questions
Needless to say, these are very strong character values that also happen to be a recipe for success for anyone they’re aimed at! I’m #blessed
As a result of who my wife is: quality has been foremost in everything we set out to do. Granted... it's usually never perfect, but we enjoy it!
Of course, whether you’re starting a lifelong relationship without intending it or starting a business thinking towels will be the reason why people come back…
The fact is: the quality of your experience matters.
To this day, we don’t have everything precise at Precision Training.
We’ve started (and continued) imprecisely. That sounds worse than it actually is because the by product has been: we’ve gotten better.
Together, overtime, Joanna and I have concentrated on balancing the essential with our preferences.
Always striving for a higher quality experience for you, our team, and our family.
The last four years of setting higher and higher standards for ourselves have brought us so many growing pains.
The byproduct is: we know what quality training looks like better than most.
I’ve learned the towels aren’t the reason people came back.
Founders of Precision Training: Wade & Joanna Merrill - matchy mathy