We were lucky to catch up with John Ding recently and have shared our conversation below.

John, appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
When I was coming up with the name of my company, I initially wanted to choose something which reflected my Taiwanese heritage by picking something in Mandarin. Mandarin, however, tends to be a very flowing and soft language and I struggled to find a word that I felt had the proper “oomph” behind it. Mandarin also doesn’t necessarily follow the same pronunciation rules that most Roman alphabet languages do.

I ended up settling on the word Kinitro, which is the Greek word for motivation. Completely left field, right? But even if you don’t know how to properly pronounce it, you’ll probably get phonetically close. Also, Nike is the Greek goddess of victory, and if going Greek was good enough for a successful giant like Nike, it was good enough for me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is John and I own a gym called Kinitro Fitness.

How I got into this industry, let’s see…

I started undergrad as a creative writing major but switched, and later graduated with an education degree. From there, I took some time off to try to write a book, and if there had been a market for story beginnings with no end, I’d have had a best seller on my hands. Throughout that entire time period I always maintained a passion for fitness and helping others. I was that one friend who would try their damnedest–can I say that?–to drag you to the gym and get you to workout. Even so, I never saw it as anything more than a hobby.

After a year as an aspiring author, I changed tact and went to law school. My thought process at the time was that grad school would provide me a clear answer to the question of “What am I doing with my life?” Needless to say, it didn’t. At least not directly.

My advice to anyone who is unsure as to what they want to do with their life is to go do something you don’t like. Whatever else you’d rather be doing, that’s probably a good place to start.

Anyway, after law school, and sitting for the bar (which I studied for a solid 3 months for and failed!), I started pursuing a career in the fitness industry. I ran group fitness classes out of my parents’ living room with a handful of friends. This eventually grew into friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends. After complaints from the neighbors about cars parked up and down the street, we decided it was time to expand. We packed up and landed in the heart of Houston’s Bellaire Chinatown. We have been here for 7 years, and at the time of my writing this, we are actually preparing for another move to a standalone building at 3830 Wilcrest Dr.

When we first opened, we offered strength based group classes to the general population. Since then we have expanded our services to include classes for kids, and amateur and professional athlete performance development.

Of all the things we have managed to accomplish in the 7 years we’ve been in operation, I am, however, most proud of the community that we have created alongside our members.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Treat people like people, not numbers.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
A good deal of our clients have come from internet based sources such as Google or Yelp. We also receive a decent amount from member referrals.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kinitrofitness.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/kinitrofitness
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/kinitrofitness
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/kinitrofitness
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/kinitrofitness
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/kinitro-fitness-houston

Image Credits
Danh Phan