Family First
Having a wife and four kids makes for a pretty demanding personal life. On top of that, we home school our kids. On top of that, I am a business owner trying to build something great at In Motion O.C., and I seek to never compromise on daily time with God. Between all these demands for my time, I ultimately have to decide what I want to prioritize. I walk a delicate line every day, and while I am passionate about all that I do, I have to make sure my family has enough of me to feel loved and cherished. At the same time, prioritizing my family has helped me learn how to prioritize customers and employees as well.
I only work 40 hours a week. When I was single, I worked 80, and even after I got married, I was still working 60 hours a week. Now I work a 40-hour workweek so I can prioritize my family and faith over everything else. With that in mind, I would say the best thing about being a business owner is the flexible hours. After 15 years in this business, the infrastructure to work remotely has improved immensely. I can work from home, I don’t need permission to go on vacations, and I can take my family to Disneyland in the offseason. The freedom of it all is wonderful, but freedom is only a means to put my family and faith first. Sometimes working from home lets me know that my family is doing well.
My emphasis on the importance of family translates into how I run In Motion O.C. We choose to put people above all else. We recently revised our mission statement to better reflect what we’re all about: “To give hope, healing, confidence, and joy to others.” We live by that. Our profession isn’t about making money; it’s about helping others. We could choose to become a factory and put profits first, but we would rather make a difference in the world. Life-changing therapy and fitness are our passions. None of us are getting rich, but we love what we do because of our desire to change lives.
Our employees understand that they are not just cogs in our business, that we care about them and their families, and that they are doing something meaningful and helpful for others. Our monthly meetings have only one purpose: to encourage our staff. We tell stories of transformations and healing, and we bring up stellar Yelp reviews. We spend the entire hour trying to affirm our employees. I love those guys. They are so good at what they do. They’re really talented and caring people. And they are the ones on the front lines delivering on our mission every day, giving hope, healing, confidence, and joy to others.
-Jeff Thomas
