In this episode, Chris interviews Steve Johnson, owner of CKO franchises in Gillette, Fanwood and Chatham. If you are looking to get in better shape, CKO Kickboxing workouts are high intensity, 60 minute classes where you can burn up to 1200 calories!
Chris has been working out at CKO since 2017 and loves it. No workout is ever the same and hitting the heavy bag is a great way to let off steam. “”With CKO, I actually look forward to my next class and that never happened with a workout in my life. For me, it took one class and I was hooked.””
Year Established: 2013
Type of Business: Fitness
Website: www.ckokickboxing.com/nj-gillette/
Locations:
977 Valley Rd, Gillette, NJ
25 South Ave, Unit 1, Fanwood, NJ
650 Shunpike Rd, Chatham, NJ
Local ties: CKO Kickboxing Fanwood was founded in June 2013 and CKO Kickboxing Gillette was founded in December 2014 by Steven Johnson who at the time lived in Union NJ (now Watchung NJ).
Community causes: We participate in Punch-a-Thon events to raise money for local charities, usually brought to us by our members. The most recent was an event in November to help a family raise money for the treatment of a rare bone cancer for their 3yr old daughter. Other events have been done for The Sharing Network (New Providence), Imagine (Westfield) as well as several others over the years.
About Steve – Moved to NJ in 2001 to work for Lucent Technologies in Corporate Finance in their Financial Leadership Development Program. As part of this program, earned a Master of Science in Finance from Babson College in 2004. In later 2006 went to work for Ralph Lauren Corp and later hired an employee that convinced me to try a CKO Kickboxing Class, well I must have loved it because I know own 3 locations (I am also a 50% owner of the Chatham CKO in addition to the two I opened)
Quirky Stat: I never actually joined CKO as a member. I went home after my trial class and looked for a location close to home and at the time, there weren't any. So I hit the franchise info button on the website and began researched opening my own.
Best moment as a business owner: There is nothing better than opening day of a new location. All the hard work you put in to opening up a new location and then to see the excitement from those who come out is just an amazing payoff.
Favorite activity in New Jersey: Love to go hit the shore when I can in the summer. Not much of a winter person, but in the summer it is so nice to live so close to the ocean.
Do you want to get in better shape? Are you looking to make a change in 2019?
