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Women In Wellness: Trisha Jordan of Orangetheory Fitness On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Nothing is perfect. I am a perfectionist, but have learned that with an ever-changing company, it is hard to be perfect. You have to learn to adjust and/or pivot quickly at times, especially while working with people. People are not perfect. You have to take the perfectionism piece of you and toss it out the window. It is okay to not be perfect.

As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Trisha Jordan.

A mother of four daughters, Trisha Jordan takes pride in her work to improve and change the lives of her teams as well as the members at Orangetheory Fitness. Recently named Regional Vice President of Florida, Jordan leads all aspects of the business throughout the state, including the areas of Tampa Bay, Gainesville, Naples and Fort Myers. She has a Bachelor of Communications degree with a focus on communication sciences and disorders from the University of South Florida.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

I attended the University of South Florida and worked at Estee Lauder while in college. During that time, I fell in love with the beauty industry and the opportunity to help make people feel good about themselves. After graduating from college, I decided to continue my career within the beauty industry for the next 10–12 years working with professional skincare and haircare companies and helping to grow those businesses. I loved helping people find and feel the best versions of themselves. From there, I decided to open my own salon and continued in that direction running the daily operations. During that time span my husband and I were also expanding our family. I joined Orangetheory Fitness after having my third child. As a member, I loved the culture and the mission behind the organization. I loved it enough that I decided it was time to make a career change leaving the beauty industry and started my new career in fitness. I began at Orangetheory as an assistant manager and worked my way through the organization to where I am now as the Regional Vice President of Florida.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

I would have to say the most interesting story that has happened during my career was in 2020 when our studios had to close due to the COVID pandemic. Not only was this difficult as a leader in a business, but also as a mother. Orangetheory is a very people driven organization and we had to figure out a way to stay connected with them — staff as well as members. I wanted to make sure, as a company, we maintained our relationships along with the safety and well-being of everyone. Through the pandemic, I learned how important human contact is within our business and within the health/fitness industry. Our industry strives on being with like-minded people working toward a common goal. I also learned a great deal when we had the opportunity to reopen. During this time, I had to look at the business through a difference lens and figure out ways to adapt to the new regulations put in place and find a way to help others adapt to the changes. In addition, I learned that we needed to create an environment and culture that encouraged and welcomed people back. The COVID shutdown was something that I have never experienced before in a leadership role and being there for my team on an emotional level was key throughout the pandemic.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

One of the biggest mistakes I learned when first starting out and even throughout my career was that you can’t do it all. There are many people in leadership positions that want to maintain control and do everything. I learned early in my career that you cannot do everything. You have to train and teach others how to do the things you do so that they can help on a daily basis. I learned that you want to build a team around you that can perform tasks at the same level or even better than you. It makes for a very efficient work environment as well as a happy environment. People want to be challenged and have responsibility, so the key is to delegate, while coaching and teaching them along the way.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

For me, this is such a loaded question as there are many levels as to how Orangetheory Fitness is making a bigger impact in the world. We are changing the lives of our members on a daily basis. Every day, we see change take place instantly through the workouts and the tracking technology that we provide. Hearing each members’ personal stories are inspirations. Their happiness and passion spreads out into the world to make impacts on others. Also, I look at my teams, we have a lot of staff within our organization. Some staff stay for years, and some stay a short period. No matter how long staff members are with us, we are making an impact by teaching them about a culture that is inclusive and providing them valuable life skills that they can take with them no matter where their professional career takes them. I have some employees that will become doctors, some go to open their own company, some are building their families wherever life takes them I hope they look back or rely on a skill or experience they had while working for us. I strive to create an environment that is focused on positive physical health and wellness that they can take with them on their next endeavor.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

  1. Make your health a priority — People are very busy. I have four kids and work a demanding job. At certain points in my life, I have been someone that didn’t put my health as a priority. You have to make your health a priority and put it at top of the list.
  2. Schedule a block time to work on your health and wellness — This block of time can be many different things. It could be just sitting in silence and reflecting or it could be training for a race and anything in between. You have to schedule an appointment with yourself and not cancel on it.
  3. Get your kids/family involved — I strongly encourage this. I get my kids involved in many different activities, including trying new recipes with healthy options or doing an OTF stretch or workout from the app with me on their days off of their sports. I strongly encourage you to get the family involved in health and fitness. Having them involved makes it a lot easier to achieve goals because you have a support team there with you.
  4. 80/20 Rule — I live by the 80/20. I don’t follow a diet. I eat healthy and am mindful 80 percent of time, but then will give myself grace to have fun at times. If I want to eat a piece of cake at my daughter’s birthday party I am going to I just am mindful to not indulge too much- about 20 percent of the time! Incorporate the 80/20 rule along with great exercise program- I obviously choose Orangetheory Fitness.
  5. Getting up early — I start each day early before my kids and husband get up. This alone time allows me to start each day with gratitude by journaling the top three things I am grateful for. This helps for me to take time and center myself for the day.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I believe that I am already doing that. I believe Orangetheory Fitness is doing that. We touch the lives of so many people and that number of people continues to grow with the expansion of the organization. I have been with the company for nine years and once you become active and make that change to a healthier lifestyle, it is hard to back. Orangetheory Fitness has made that movement for people all over the world as we have approximately 1,300 studios throughout 50 states and 23 countries.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

  1. Nothing is perfect. I am a perfectionist, but have learned that with an ever-changing company, it is hard to be perfect. You have to learn to adjust and/or pivot quickly at times, especially while working with people. People are not perfect. You have to take the perfectionism piece of you and toss it out the window. It is okay to not be perfect.
  2. Have grace — I believe having grace is really important in our world today. Work has changed drastically over the last two years and you have to be willing to give people grace. We run a business so of course performance is something we measure; I just always want to do so while coaching and helping people develop and give them the grace and time to do so.
  3. Learn to process and not react — Because of the business that I’m in, we’re people oriented and people need to be heard. You can’t always prepare for what people are going to share so you must really listen to understand and process what they say and not react. You need to keep your emotions in check 24/7 by not reacting to the things going on around you. Process the information first and then devise a plan before acting.
  4. Have fun — I think that is self-explanatory. We work in an exciting industry and in an environment that should be fun, uplifting and exciting. Corporations can have a stigma to be buttoned up and serious, but we don’t work that way at Orangetheory Fitness. I learned early on that you have to have fun and create a fun atmosphere for your team. If your team isn’t experiencing that fun, your members won’t either.
  5. Be transparent — I think a lot of people, especially those in a higher position, want to covet all information including information about the company and even day decisions. When you’re transparent with your team, you get people to row in the same direction with you. Your team feels as though they are helping to make an impact on the business and are a part of the processes designed and have a clear understand why decisions are being made. If you’re not transparent, problems could arise and your team members will start to row in the opposite direction because they don’t fully understand. Transparency is key!

Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

This is a hard question as I value all of those things and know they are all crucial topics that we should be improving on in so many levels. Mental health is the nearest and dearest to me for many reasons, especially after we have all been through the last two years. These past years have shown how much of an impact mental health can impact your health and body. Being a mom to four girls I think it is important that they know it is okay to not be okay and provide a safe space for them to share their struggles whether that is with me or a professional. At Orangetheory Fitness we see so many people and hear their stories of drug addiction, struggles with bipolar, personality disorders, relationship hardships and how our community and workout helped them overcome those struggles. We need our country to provide better assistance for mental health. We need to have more help readily available to people that are experiencing struggles with their mental health and keep awareness up and remove the stigma that is still so present today.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

The best way for people to get a hold of me and follow my work at OrangeTheory Fitness would be through my LinkedIn profile — https://www.linkedin.com/in/trisha-jordan-348833144/.

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.

Women In Wellness: Trisha Jordan of Orangetheory Fitness On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.