Cincinnati PR

The ingredients: A budding Cincinnati entrepreneur. An enormous market. Busy executives and professionals looking for Five-Star, on-demand fitness services imported to their home or office.

The recipe: Connecting well-heeled clientele – people who already realize they must commit to regular exercise routines in order to keep their mind, body, spirit and competitive juices flowing – with efficient, motivated and mobile personal trainers.

The chef: a young, highly motivated Cincinnati entrepreneur, Zak Nordyke, who previously built his business by leasing a condo at The Ascent at Roebling’s Gate in Covington. At the $55 million icon, where homes cost between $800,000 and $5.5 million, Nordyke successfully converted his apartment into a gym and began to build a solid clientele through the best means available: word-of-mouth referrals.

The newest iteration of Nordyke’s ambition is Destination Fitness (http://www.YourDestinationFitness.com) which is, in effect, Zak Nordyke Home Fitness on steroids – and wheels.

“With the facility I was able to open for a full year inside the building, The Ascent was able to provide the exact market that I’ve been targeting for home- and office-delivered personal training services,” Nordyke.

“The concept spoke to efficiency and expediency, which are the heart of my business. For many of them, I was just down the hall or the elevator, which made it easy. “

Nordyke and Destination Fitness are taking the Greater Cincinnati fitness market by storm with a series of events and programs over the next several months. His goal: To make it easy to live healthy.

“Our intent is to be the first major personal exercise training company to exclusively provide instruction to clients directly in their home or office,” Nordyke said. “We want to be the go-to company to help people get into peak physical condition.”

PERSONAL-TRAINING RISES AT THE ASCENT

Nordyke is a soft-spoken husband and father, running his business out of his home in Roselawn, where he grew up. Raise the topic of fitness, and this mild-mannered entrepreneur’s eyes light up.

“Fitness, nutrition and healthy choices are my passion. For the past three years I have been seeking the means with which people can revolutionize the way they get healthy,” Nordyke said. “The company has grown steadily over the past three years. Now, it’s time to take this to the next level.”

Nordyke is the son of a well-known Cincinnati educator, David Nordyke, founder of Harmony Community School, who passed away unexpectedly in 2003. David Nordyke co-wrote the Charter School Bill for the State of Ohio and was a staunch advocate of education for lower-income students and the inner-city population.

A Harmony graduate himself, who also earned a higher-ed degree from the Union Institute in Avondale, Nordyke returned to Harmony after graduating, where he worked as an assistant basketball coach and director of development until 2008. He launched Zak Nordyke Home Fitness after his tenure at Harmony, which has since closed.

DESTINATION FITNESS: CHANGING THE BUSINESS MODEL OF FITNESS FOR EXECS, PROFESSIONALS

If The Ascent proved to be the bridge-builder – Nordyke picked up a dozen clients his first couple of months living there – Destination Fitness will be the game-changer.

Nordyke brokers personal-training services between clients and a personal-training network that he intends to grow to an 80-PT network. For every 100 clients he signs, he’ll need between 10-15 personal trainers.

Destination Fitness charges a sliding scale of fees, based on the weekly frequency of visits from personal trainers, and the length of the contract.

The fully-loaded package of twice-weekly visits for a full year costs $6,849; the same weekly frequency for six months costs $3,532. Weekly sessions cost $3,480 annually, or $1,820 for six months.  The quarterly program costs $1,820 for twice-weekly workouts, or $936 for one session a week, for 13 weeks.

The program is set up in three formats:

– one-on-one training;

– partner training; and

– small-group training.

The individual sessions are designed to accommodate individual needs, and suit clients looking to focus on specific fitness objectives at their own pace.

The partnering approach allows clients to work out side-by-side with a friend or loved one. The instructor can then design a training program identifical for both clients, who can simultaneously monitor their goals and progress. The small-group service caters to  as many as four people, providing a group dynamic and a fun, nurturing environment for individuals committed to becoming healthier.

“The group plan is also a great way for clients to motivate each other – and to be held accountable by, and for, each other,” Nordyke said.

For more information and/or to reach Mr. Nordyke, please visit http://www.YourDestinationFitness.com, drop him a line at (513) 623-8422 or send Zak an e-mail at znordyke@yahoo.com.