We recently connected with Tavon Bookman and have shared our conversation below.

Tavon , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

While I was managing and iLoveKickboxing location in Atlanta, I had a very unique opportunity and it might be perhaps the biggest work-related risk I’ve taken in my career to date. I had previously managed boutique style gyms for the past 3 years and acheived major successess while doing so. I figured out a system of training, sales, and provided a customer experience that seem to cultivate success within my teams, studios, and myself personally. I was comfortable earning my salary and commissions for the work I was putting in.

While I loved every minute of my experience managing and growing boutique gyms, it took a toll on my mental health and family life at home. The work-life balance was just never there. From having to teach classes as a manager in addition to the endless responsibilities of a Franchise Manager, my time was very limited and thus my stress levels were increasing day by day. I would remember coming home some days and not even wanting to talk to anyone. I would fall asleep and have dreams talking about sales or the studio. Don’t get me wrong here, working in gyms and helping clients lose weight, feel better, tackle life-long obstacles was definitely a bright spot for me during those years and I learned so much about myself during that time. However, I was not in a position to prioritize my time at home, and the stress was mounting. I went from one gym to another and the result was the same each time. We’d have massive success because of the work my team and I were able to acheive, but at the end of the day I was not truly happy because I did not have time to take care of myself or my family the way I wanted to. I was making a lot of money for the gyms I managed, however I was not being paid anything remotely close to the value I was providing. I wanted more.

Fast forward to my time at iLoveKickboxing; while I was there I was given an ambassadorship with another cryotheraphy franchise to work with my gym as business partners. I took this opportunity swiftly and fell in love with cryotherapy and how it made me feel as an athlete instantly. The thought crossed my mind one day, “What if you had the opportunity to manage a cryotherapy studio?”. Through networking and my conversations with the manager at the franchise at the time, I discovered that a lot of the things I was lacking at my current job were present in this industry. The earning potential was even better than the boutiqe gyms due to the nature of the industry itself, the work-life balance was 100% better in every way, and I would be able to continue to utilize cryotherapy in my and my family’s lives. I remember my eyes lighting up when the manager there told me they close at 7pm during the week and at 4pm on the weekends. It felt like I had not had a weekend to myself in 4 years. Some of that is absolutely due to my inability to time manage, but overall I worked and had to work every weekend, was physically and mentally exhausted everyday and it was not healthy at all.

I enjoyed what I was doing at those gyms, but I wanted more. I felt like I had already reached the pinnacle for what could be done for the locations I managed and I wanted my time back. I did not want to teach classes anymore, I wanted to be in an environment that allowed me work-life balance, upward mobility for continued growth, and a less stressed work environment all together.

Although it took me several months after being an ambassador to do so, eventually I started applying and looking for opportunities to manage cryotherapy studios while working at ILKB. And one day in 2019, one of the owners from Icebox East Cobb (which was not open yet) reached out to me on Indeed and found my resume. Julie and I met and interviewed in person and it was like a dream come true at first! This was exactly what I was craving that whole time and she even offered me the role as the Franchise Manager after we met.

The only caveat here was that they were still in development and not open yet, so I had to decide which direction I was going to go in during the interim. During that interim, I stayed at ILKB and continue to keeo in touch with Julie to see what the progress was for the studio opening. She said they originally planned to open in Spring of 2020, and I thought that would work perfectly with my timeline. I could stay here until next spring and then transition into the role at Icebox. That was my thought process at the time.

I had three options at the time the way I saw it. I could continue to stay in the unhealthy work environment that was taking more than it was giving to me until next spring, I could work another manager job at another gym until Icebox opened, or I could look for an opportunity to work at a different Icebox location until East Cobb was finished with construction and open for business.

Low and behold, the Buckhead Icebox location was looking for Wellness Coordinators around this same time period. I thought to myself that this would be a very unique opportunity for me to learn about the infrastructure, set up, operations, sales, and more if I were to take a position as a Wellness Coordinator at Buckhead. At first, this was a very frightening thought because I was the sole provider for my family and had been on salary that barely covered my expenses for the past 5 years. How could I take a front desk position only paying $14/hr and still support my family until Icebox East Cobb was ready for me? I battled with this decision for weeks, until one day I evealuated the pros & cons, wrote them down, and took a risk.

I left ILKB, interviewed at Icebox Buckhead, got the job and started working there to learn as much as I could prior to East Cobb opening. I worked on the ground floor, learned the sales process they had in place and reinvented to fully maximize the opprotunity I would soon have in East Cobb. I asked questions, tons of them! I asked the staff what they liked and disliked about their jobs, I asked the clients about their experience with Icebox and cryotherapy in general. I educated myself on every single aspect of the business so that I could be better preparred for my location when my name was called. It was hard, there were a lot of long nights working uber eats after and before my shifts to provide for my family. But I stuck it out, and I knew in the back of my head that all of the work and sleepless nights were going to pay off soon for me. I could see the potential Icebox had and stayed laser focused on the process. I quickly became the best salesman in the company and at that location as well.

I had (and still have to this day) a notebook that I would keep with me everyday to write down ideas, questions, and a gameplan for what I was going to do once East Cobb was ready. It was about 8 months of working at Icebox Buckhead before East Cobb was finally ready to open (due to COVID, building delays, etc). I made a plan to be the number 1 Icebox in the country and once East Cobb opened, I put everything I had been working on to the test. As I write this now, I can say that I did every single thing I said I would and we are and have been the number one location in the country for the past 8 months and we’re still growing! We have the most members, the most revenue, a happy team work environment, and we have the buiding blocks to continue to do some extremely special things here. We broke the pre-sale record for most memberships sold in our first 30 days with over 100 members signed up, and currently boast over 310 members iand counting,

This was by far the biggest and scariest risk I took in my career and if I had the chance to do it over, I would do it the same exact way. I learned so much about myself, my work ethic, my ability to see what I could not touch, my ability to dream and work towards that dream, my ability to perservere and make a way, and my ability to exercise patience. I could have easily applied to any other gym and I would have most likely been hired on the spot from my track record working in gyms, but that was the easy route. Instead, I took a MAJOR paycut to humble myself, to learn about this new company that was different from a boutique gym, to work from a perspective of inspiration and vision and I could not be prouder of the results that have come from that decision.

Moral of the story is challenge yourself, take risks, be bold and calculated with your life. Don’t settle for less than what you belive you deserve, and most importantly, don’t make decisions out of fear. Fear kills more dreams than anything in this world. Be a risk-taker.

Tavon , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am from the Bronx, NY and I am a former college basketball player. I played basketball at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut and moved to Atlanta in 2017. I am married and have a beautiful 5-year old daughter named Olivia that is the light of my world. I majored in Business Management while in school, and have a passion for helping others in all capacities. I love working out and playing basketball as they are a big part of who I am. I am also kind of a nerd for business and I love to learn about ways to provide quality services/products to people that will help them achieve an overall better quality of life.

I got my start in Atlanta by working at OrangeTheory Fitness in Cumberland and have worked in botique style gyms for 4 years after that. I started at OTF as a Sales Associate and within 2 months worked my way up to Assistant Manager there. When I got to Cumberland, they were struggling and on the verge of closing, and during my time there we completely turned the business around. We added 150+ memberships during my year there and I was personally responsible for selling about 25 memberships plus every month on average. It was at OTF where I started to connect with other leaders in the boutique industry to discover the trends, identify what worked and what did not, learn about the benefits of social media integration, organic and paid lead generation, sales training, operations, and so much more.

After a year working there I moved on to another company where I was given the role of General Manager of the gym, and I never looked back from there. I emplyed all the tools I learned from OTF and continued to perfect them over time to get where I am today. While managing ILKB, I was featured on FOX 5 Atlanta and my location was the only location to survive the COVID pandemic and still is the only ILKB location in Georgia today. There were 6 when I started there in late 2018.

I am most proud of my resiliency throughout my journey thus far. I would have never seen myself in this role 10 years ago, and am proud that I was lucky enough to find something I was very good at right out of college. I want people to know that I am a person who values growth, learning, working hard for what you want, and I don’t belive there is anything that I cannot do when I set my mind to it. I have had many setbacks during my journey, and points where I felt it was all for nothing, but I stayed the course and can look back in hindsight and appreciate every struggle. What I think sets me apart from other leaders in this industry and in general, is that I have no quit button in my DNA, yet I have learned to be patient and enjoy the process when working towards a goal. I am methodical, practical, and I give anything I am working towards my absolute all.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I run my teams very similar to how a basketball coach runs a team. I belive that in order to manage a successful team, you must treat it like a team. Although I am the “manager”, I do everything that I ask my team to do. The only thing that differentiates me from them, is the fact that I have more responsibilities once I clock out and they don’t! I have worked for several poor managers on my way up the ladder to GM, and one thing I learned is that great management and leaders work for their team, not the other way around. I always have a team first mindset when approaching challenges or situations with my teams. How can I be a more effective leader, teacher, or even co-worker for them to acheive the most they can while working for me? How can I hold myself accountable? By operating from these mindsets, I have found that you are better able to cultivate a team culture where everyone feels valued no matter their role or amount of hours they work.

I hold monthly staff meetings with my team and we go over the good and the bad! But it is the way in which we do so that makes us an effective team. I don’t blame them for shortcomings, instead we look for ways to improve together. I might notice that a team member is struggling with a certain aspect of the job and instead of blaming them for “not doing well enough” I ask them how can I help them more. This is very important if you want to build a strong team where people are acutally excited to come to work each day and tackle team goals and such,

In terms or maintaining morale, that is a daily job for me. Whether it’s celebrating little & big wins in our groupchat or giving monthly bonuses or having team outings, we are constantly looking for ways to reward the efforts and performance of everyone on our team. We are in an employee’s job market these days, so look for ways to add value to your team, rather than ways to criticize and expect more from them. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results!

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I think that aside from training & knowledge, one must act from a place of genuineness and empathy to be successful in the Wellness industry. What has helped me personally the most is my ability to connect with my clients and build a geninue rapport with them when they visit us. I want to know about what brought them to Icebox, what they have done to deal with their pain/injuries prior to coming in, and most importantly what their goal is for coming to us.

People can feel when you are just trying to “sell” them a product or service but aren’t really concerned for their best interests. In order to help anyone do anything you must first ask questions. You need to get a concrete understanding of their “why” and also what may have gotten in their way of exexcuting that “why” first. You should then be genuine in your response or suggestions to them and provide them with an opportunity to get what it is they are seeking at the best possible cost!

Lead with care, kindness, empathy, authenticity, and education. The rest will take care of itself!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://iceboxtherapy.com/home/icebox-east-cobb/
• Instagram: @icebox_eastcobbga / @__swaggyt
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/tavon-bookman-a306b7221
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/icebox-cryotherapy-east-cobb-marietta

Image Credits
Photography by Samuel Romell Ashby IG: @manyniknames