An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Transparency is everything, to us and our customers. All of our packaging lists the product use or ingredient in its name and has all ingredients and directions on the back.
As a part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview John James.
John James is the founder and head trainer behind the Strong and Sexy Fit Ebooks and Products. James’ passion for helping and supporting women on their fitness and health journies stems from watching his mother and sisters constantly strive to feel their most confident selves. James knew he wanted to make a difference in the culture surrounding women’s body image, confidence, and fitness and health journies. It wasn’t until he met and married his wife Ali James, that now would be the time to make a difference in this space. John James has now made it his life mission to ensure the women in his life and now across the country feel their best in their own skin, always STRONG and always SEXY. Aside from creating a fully curated line of women’s supplements he feels proud to share with his wife, James continues to share his passion for fitness, with his one-on-one fitness sessions.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Thank you so much for having me! My name is John James I am the founder and head trainer behind the Strong and Sexy Fit Ebooks and Supplements. My passion for helping and supporting women on their fitness and health journeys stems from growing up in a house filled with women. I was constantly watching my mother and sisters strive to feel their most confident selves and wondered how I could possibly prevent my wife and daughters one day from feeling those same feelings. With my passion for fitness and nutrition, I knew I could help make a difference in the culture surrounding women’s body image, confidence, and fitness and health journeys. This passion of mine really came to fruition when I met and married my wife Ali. My wife is the love of my life and I couldn’t imagine seeing her struggle with self confidence, that is why I poured myself into Strong and Sexy Fit. I wanted to ensure the women in my life and now women nationwide always felt their best in their own skin and knew there was someone out there cheering them on.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When you start a business it is really about trial and error, seeing what works for you and your customer base and where you may need to pivot. While this experience I am going to share is not so-called funny, it was an experience that completely changed the way I think and approach marketing Strong and Sexy Fit. When we first started marketing our Ebooks we used women who were in incredible shape on the covers. I quickly realized that having that fitness enthusiast or fanatic was very intimidating to a lot of our customers who are newer to the health and fitness space. If you are a beginner and looking to start your fitness journey the last thing you want to purchase is an ebook with a fitness model on the cover who is already in fantastic shape, you want to see someone like yourself, a real person on that cover whom you can identify to. The lesson I took away from this is that it is incredibly important to KNOW and cater to your customer base and create products they can see themselves using. When you genuinely know your demographic you are much more likely to close a sale.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Strong and Sexy Fit was not only created from personal needs but built from the passion of growing a community of strong and confident women around the world. Strong and Sexy Fit offers all types of supplements curated specifically for the female body whether your goals are lifestyle or fitness related.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We are always working on something new and exciting for our customers! We love to change up flavors and have special releases of products, definitely stay tuned for a possible drop… we can’t share too much as it would take some of the surprise and excitement away, but it will definitely be a sweet drop…
Ok, let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
For Strong and Sexy Fit it was important to have branding that felt like something familiar, it felt like a best friend’s product they loved they wanted to share with you. Our branding is light, fresh, and inviting. All of our packaging has the type of supplement in its name allowing our customers to feel no confusion when purchasing. For advertising and marketing, we feel organic is best. We created these products to our personal standards so we love them and share them through our social channels, what we truly love to see is customers sharing their personal experiences after using Strong and Sexy Fit supplements whether it be the Greens, the hormonal balance Goddess, the pre-workout or the collagen. The best form of marketing for us has been word of mouth because the products do speak for themselves.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
It is incredibly important to invest in your brand. The cliche, “you get out what you put into something” is a cliche for a reason, it’s true. If you invest in your brand and keep investing in it, it will grow.
Can you share 5 strategies a company should use to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each.
- Create a brand or product you are proud to use yourself. If you believe wholeheartedly in your brand others will believe in it.
- Don’t take shortcuts. For example, we have a Greens powder that provides you with only the good and nutrient-packed parts of the fruit or vegetables. We also felt that it was important to use patented ingredients, only the best of the best and while they may not be as cost-efficient they were exactly what we believed in and felt our customers deserved.
- Transparency is everything, to us and our customers. All of our packaging lists the product use or ingredient in its name and has all ingredients and directions on the back.
- Be available for your customers. Something Strong and Sexy Fit offers is for our customers to email us with any questions they may have regarding product recommendations from us. We are happy to help our customers find the products that will best suit their needs.
- Keep your customers and or clients top of mind when bringing your product to market. You want to ensure your product can be easily understood and is marketed in a way it is relatable to your consumer. Make your packaging pop, make it stand out, and have your marketing do the same.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
The Honest Company has done a fantastic job creating a brand that is universally trusted with something as sensitive as our little ones. One thing the Honest Company does that makes me trust them and loyal to their brand is their commitment to the continuous study of ingredients they choose to use. I think the best thing you can do to replicate that is putting conviction over profit. Prioritizing doing the right thing over the easy thing as a business owner is something I personally think will make a successful and trusted business as the Honest Company continues to do. When your customer base personally experiences the wonders your product can do and feels the transparency from you, they will be dedicated to your brand too.
In advertising, one generally measures success by the number of sales. How does one measure the success of a brand-building campaign? Is it similar, is it different?
The success of a brand-building campaign for our brand is measured by the satisfaction of our customers. When our customers see results, love the taste, and continue to share the products, we have succeeded. After all, we built this brand to contribute to the well-being of women’s lives across the country.
What role does social media play in your branding efforts?
Social media plays a major role in our branding efforts as we have personally used our platforms to share Strong and Sexy Fit but also have partnered in creating products with influencers such as Tanner Mann. We created a delicious and efficient pre-workout together and wanted to share that with all of our followers.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The reason we started Strong and Sexy Fit is the same movement we hope to keep inspiring. It is to create and continue to build a Community of strong women who feel confident in themselves, not only physically but who they are as people. A healthy body, strong mind, and happy heart can contribute so much to others’ lives and the world in ways we may not have thought possible. Strong and Sexy Fit is here to show women are powerful and can be both strong and sexy, and that there is nothing wrong with being both.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My mother always said, “Wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which fills up faster.” It may sound like an obscene quote but it carries a lot of weight with me. So many times in life we spend our days wishing on our goals and ambitions. Those wishes are often left unfulfilled if not met with action. I myself spent years wishing on my goals and never saw them come to fruition until I got the ball rolling and started putting in the effort. If you have a dream or a goal, chase it, put in the work, the late nights, whatever it takes to get you closer to achieving it. Nothing in your life will change or be accomplished until you change it or take active steps to accomplish it.
OR IF this is to “much” here is an alternative
My second grade teacher used to always say to me “ When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”, Often in reference to my desire to be the top accelerated reader. Although the quote was used in light context, it has lived with me every day since. Often in life we are met with adversity and challenges and those are the very times that call for us to step up to the plate and face them with dedication and courage. Owning a fitness/ supplement company during arguably the greatest supply chain challenges of modernity has come with a laundry list of issues to navigate in order to strive towards perfection and meet customer expectations. I can still hear Mrs. Rivers at times of strife encouraging me with her favorite quote!
We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have a lunch or breakfast with? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I’d prefer a night out with my wife who is one of my greatest assets to my business.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
We would love it if you followed us on Instagram @strongandsexyfit
And check out our supplements at strongandsexy.fit
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Thank you so much! I appreciate it.
John James Of Strong and Sexy Fit: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
