Career Confidential: Jamie Walker

Full name?: Jamie Walker

Position / Job title?:  CEO and Founder, SweatGuru and Fit Approach

1.    When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was a kid I wanted to be a lot of things – a pro athlete, a Fly Girl on In Living Color, the editor of Vogue, an NFL cheerleader or a TV personality. As I grew older, I started to forget about cheerleading and In Living Color (I think I started to realize I just wasn’t that fly), but I never stopped dreaming about being on TV. In fact, I didn’t care how or why, I just wanted to be on TV. And to this day, I still fantasize about sitting next to Kelly Ripa. I’d love to get her laced up in some Fit Approach SweatPink shoelaces and doing workouts with me found on SweatGuru. A girl can dream….

2.    Fast-forward several years/decades. How did you land (or create) your current position?
The short answer: a lot of hard work! But I suppose there is much more to the story than that. I had been working in PR and marketing for more than six years while my co-founder was working at Kaiser’s Wellness marketing department.  We had both arrived at pivotal points in our careers and realized we wanted to create something of our own. Over a bottle of wine and excited jazz handing,  the idea for our first business, Fit Approach came about.

We had a passion for fitness and a desire to give people a safe place online to inspire, encourage, motivate and connect. We created a community for health and fitness minded people that has surpassed even my wildest dreams.
While my co-founder Alyse and I were busy building our community, we were also teaching bootcamp and yoga classes in San Francisco. But as my classes began to grow, I started getting frustrated with the way we were managing and marketing them. While sitting at a coffee shop going over our options to make our classes more streamlined, it dawned on us, we could build something better. And from there, SweatGuru was born. We wanted to build a marketplace that would not only help fitness business owners manage and grow their businesses, but also give consumers a better way to discover, share and experience fitness online.

3.    Did you have to take on internships to get there? How important in general, do you think, are internships?
I’ve had many internships and jobs over the years. My first real internship, if you can even call it that, was when I was nine years old. I worked as a jr. lifeguard and swim instructor at the city pool. You were supposed to be at least 11 years old to be in the jr. lifeguard / swim instructor program so my mom did what any sane (ahem) parent would do. She lied about my age. I spent the entire summer working in the baby pool because I wasn’t even tall enough to stand in the shallow end of the big pool, which was pretty necessary for teaching kids how to swim.

I spent the next several summers working as a jr. guard /swim instructor until I was finally old enough to be a real one. I first got bit by the entrepreneur bug while teaching swim lessons. I realized the city pool would pay me my hourly wage, but if I were to offer parents private lessons I could make more than double what I made at the city pool. I worked at pools all around the city before and after my regular hours at the city pool and when people would ask if I was tired, I would say, yes, but so what?! I taught swim lessons all through college – best summer job I could’ve ever had!

After college, I worked at a law firm for about a year. I thought I had to be a lawyer. It seemed like the next natural course for me. Only after I had worked with lawyers for a year, I realized I really didn’t want to be a lawyer and decided to take a PR internship, which led me to where I am today.

So yes, I think internships are vital. They are a great way to learn new skills, network and grow professionally whether for a particular job or for jobs you may have in the future.

4.    Tell us what a typical work day looks like for you. What is your job REALLY like, both the glamorous and not-so-glamorous parts?
One of the things I love most about my job is that I never have a typical day. I am an early riser, so I usually get up around 5:45am and do some form of workout. After a good sweat session, I’m in the office where I can be found working with my team on any number of things: customer meetings and/or service for SweatGuru, calls with brands for Fit Approach, organizing events, conducting interviews, writing articles and blog posts, developing marketing strategies, circling up with engineers, and of course, trouble shooting with Alyse.

Owning a business (or two) isn’t as glamorous as it may seem. There are a lot of sleepless nights, early mornings and headaches. But even with all that, I wouldn’t trade any of it in. I love what I do.

5.    What is the biggest career mistake you’ve ever made?
I make mistakes every single day. I think being successful truly is about making mistakes and learning how to correct them and move on. I haven’t made one single “career changing” mistake yet (fingers crossed!). Every mistake to date has been a valuable learning experience (even if a slight pain in the butt).

6.    What is the single most important piece of advice you would give to other career-minded women?
Don’t give up. Creating and living your dreams is never easy. You have to work hard, you have to want it and you have to go for it. When the going gets tough, that’s when the fun begins. Look tough in the face and stare it down. That’s when you’ll really know what you’re made of.

If you want something bad enough, give it all you got and never say die.

7.    Let’s talk about work/life balance. What does that mean to you? Is it important?
Oh the dreaded work/life balance question! There are a few things I absolutely need to feel balanced in life: exercise, dark chocolate, yoga, time with friends, and lastly, sleep. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most normal sleeper. I can get by on very little at times and then others, I crash for a long time. I equate my sleeping habits to that of a snake’s eating habits. One big sleep and I’ll be just fine. 😉

So aside from not needing sleep, I incorporate my much needed balance into my life by carving out time for exercise, yoga and friends every week. I wake up early so I can squeeze in a workout before work. We also have weekly office fitness so I can get in some extra yoga or sweat sessions mid week. If I am getting regular exercise and can make dates to see friends, I’m a pretty happy camper. Is it the most balanced? Probably not. But I’m happy. And that’s all that really counts, right?

 
8.    On that note, do you think women can have it all? Both the baller career, and the happy family?
I don’t think anyone should have it ALL. I think we should have the things we need to feel truly happy. It should be a balance of what we need to survive and what we want that will make us truly happy. Aside from being impossible, having it all is subjective. For some people having it all might mean having a baller career, a happy family and a vacation home in Hawaii. For others having it all might mean a house, a couple of kids and a dog that will lick your face the minute you get home. While for others, that might mean having an hour every day set aside for yoga no matter where you live or vacation. For me, it is somewhere right in the middle. Having what I need includes a job I truly love and feel challenged by, having a healthy social life and finding time for exercise and travel. I don’t need to have a closet full of clothes or three vacation homes. I just need happiness, adventure and a fulfilling job.

 
9.    If you could look into a crystal ball and see 20 years into your future, what would you want to see?
I see SweatGuru thriving – a happy team working side by side to make the fitness world a better place. I see myself with my yoga mat in one hand, running shoes in the other and my laptop bag. I’m doing a lot of the same things – carving out time to exercise and a lot of new things – managing a bigger team, enjoying my expanding family and of course, throwing a ball for my ridiculously cute, well behaved puppy.

10.    Do you have any career role models? Who are they?
Kathie Davis, Executive Director of IDEA. She inspires me in fitness, career and life in general.

11.    What is the best piece of advice that you have ever received – career-related or otherwise?
The best piece of advice I have ever received was before my first attempt to run 100 miles. A runner friend of mine told me that the only thing I could do during the race was embrace the highs and manage the lows. Through every twist, turn and adventure during the 80 miles of my attempted 100, I could hear him saying that in my head. And later as I was recounting my race, I remembered how well that saying had applied to my journey and how I could apply it to my everyday life, career and fitness.

Life is all about balance – embracing the highs, managing the lows.

12.    Parents love to say, “just wait ’til you have to face the real world…” When you were in college or high school, what did you think the “real world” looked like? What is the difference between what you thought and reality?
For most of my childhood, it was just my mom, my brother and me. And while I had a single mom who often worked multiple jobs, I never felt that life was any different for me than other kids. She worked hard to give my brother and I every opportunity and approached life with lightness and balance. I think I saw the “real world” in her at a young age and through that was given the ability to adapt to new situations quickly and with ease. The real world wasn’t really any different than the world that I knew as a child.

13.    Should you work for the money, or do what you love?
Do what you love. Find a way to be the best at it. And then make money. You’ll be a happier person because of it.

14.    How important is money to you when considering a job?
I think it is immensely important to know your value and stick to your guns. Don’t ever sell yourself short and make sure any opportunity you are taking is the one you really want. Some opportunities are worth taking even if the monetary reward isn’t as great – it’s all about getting to where you really want to be.

15.    What is the single most important factor of a job?
I think the most important part of a job is doing something you love and believe in. The rest will fall into place.

16.    If you married a millionaire husband and didn’t have to work, would you? (Be honest.)
Of course I’d still work! I would get bored just sitting around doing nothing all day. I love being challenged and would probably want to compete with my rich hubby and make more money than him.