We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sofia Whitfield a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sofia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, one thing many business owners consider is donating a percentage of sales or profits to an organization or cause. We’d love to hear your thoughts and the story behind how and why you chose the cause or organization you donate to.
I have always believed in giving back but after becoming a new mom, my eyes have opened to the injustices many mothers experience in devoloping and third world countries. There needs to be more support towards mothers worldwide. 10% of all profits at Synergy180 are donated to Non-For-Profits that support single expecting and working mothers.
We are currently working with a Non-For-Profit, 100% Mamans in Morocco that helps single mothers by providing them with education, childcare, housing and psychological support. I am going to be in Morocco this summer volunteering my time and financial resources to helping women, children and orphans.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Sofia Whitfield and I truly believe that if you live life with an open heart and mind it will bring your greatest experiences, challenges, and opportunities. That’s the quickest and simplest way to describe my path in my career and life. Synergy180 is here to meet people where they are and help them love the current body they have while making healthier and better choices to their end goal through fitness and nutrition advise.
We are San Diego’s only studio that combines High-Intensity-Interval-
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
IMPROVE IMPROVE IMPROVE. Don’t stop trying to improve. The day you stop finding problems in your business, systems, and processes is the day your business starts dying. EVERY business can be better. We have grown to be the Peninsulas’ number one voted gym for personal training and group training because we strive to be better. Hiring better coaches, giving coaching continued education, improving equipment, improving our polices and so forth. No business is perfect so we take feedback from our staff, clients, and community as gold and seek ways to improve as a business and as humans. That truly has helped us grow in our business.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
You can’t do it on your own no matter how “good” you think you are. From a young age I would always enjoy and prefer working on my own. In group projects, I would end up taking over, doing the group project by myself and feeling satisfied when it was done “my way”.
In business, I always jumped in and would do things myself because it would be “faster”, “correct” or “easier”. Boy was I wrong…
Most business owners will understand that it is HARD letting go of control and allowing someone else to take the reins. Luckily, my hand was forced with my pregnancy and having my daughter who is now 9 months old. Taking a step back has allowed my amazing and dedicated team to take a step forward. It gave them the space and freedom to be creative, take risks, make mistakes and learn from them,. More importantly, they knew that I was entrusting them with the business, our members, and our community involvement so they truly raised to the occasion.
Our business in the past year has grown by 73% and that is thanks to the hard work and dedication of our coaches and management. They are hands down the best humans.
So, to anyone reading this, LET GO. Delegate, trust your team, and allow them to learn from their mistakes. #dontbeacontrolfeak
Contact Info:
- Website: www.synergy180.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/synergy180
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/synergy180
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofia-whitfield-439a51191?trk=org-employees
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/synergy180-san-diego
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