Meet Connor Iwema | Entrepreneur & Fintness enthusiast

We had the good fortune of connecting with Connor Iwema and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Connor, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
It all started with Amazon FBA. During the pandemic I started an e-commerce business doing FBA through Amazon. Through that I was introduced to a Private Label opportunity through the same platform. When the world shut down I went through the process of converting my 2 car garage into a home gym like a lot of other people did. During that process I realized while there were tons of home fitness equipment options, everything was super ugly.

I wanted to create a personal fitness equipment company that made products in colors that were aesthetically pleasing. Something that wouldn’t clash with every piece of furniture/decoration in my house if I left it out. After some unfortunate changes with the Amazon platform and months of planning/production of our first product I had to shift gears and open a Shopify storefront to sell my product.

Ultimately, I wanted to start my own business to learn and grow as an individual while also carving out a separate source of income for myself. There has been a lot of ups and downs, but the things I have learned along the way have been priceless.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As I mentioned in a previous answer, this is something I do as a secondary source of income. As much as I wish I had the ability to be a full time business owner/Entrepreneur I still currently hold down a traditional 9-5.

I am lucky enough to work for an amazing company called Kore.ai. We are a leader in conversational AI providing solutions to help businesses build, deploy, manage, and analyze intelligent virtual assistants to automate business operations. I have worked in a few different industries since graduating from Southern Illinois University Carbondale with the majority of my sales experience being in mortgages. I now leverage my background in financial services to develop relationships with banks, wealth management, and business services type companies across North America.

Everything I know about business it from trial and error. I have been fortunate enough to work at companies that are start ups to companies that are fortune 100. I’ve been able to piece together different experiences to help guide Aesthetic Wellness. I would by no means say I have it all figured out and am constantly doing self enablement to learn more about digital marketing, SEO, branding, product expansion, etc.

If there is one thing I want people to know about my brand its that I build this business with one thing in mind. I wanted to combine the world of aesthetic design and fitness. While I understand not everyone has the ability to dump money into a business that they are passionate about, I do hope that my brand/company can be a symbol for finding something you are passionate about and taking action.

I didn’t wake up one day and say I want to be a fitness brand CEO, but I found something I was passionate about and took action. If you surround yourself with good people, humble yourself to take criticism, and push yourself to keep learning you can do whatever you put your mind to.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Funny enough, this is something I have done quite a few times. Since moving to Arizona in 2018, my house has become a destination for friends and family to escape the dreary weather around the rest of the country. If I was to put together the perfect weekend it would have a little bit of everything.

In a perfect world we would kick off the weekend on a first Friday. Head to Roosevelt St downtown phoenix to enjoy some local art, great food, and of course a few drinks. When the sun went down we would hop around to a few of my favorite spots in the area, but would end the night at Sazerac’s. There is nothing better than their outdoor patio, a sazarita on tap, and the Mexican food truck for a late night snack.

Saturday morning we could pick from 1 of a million beautiful hikes in the valley to get the blood going and take in the breath taking views of the city. That hike can lead into a brunch in old town scottsdale at a place like the Montauk, or maybe even Cala. From there the world is your oyster and you could do anything. I like to find myself at the uptown farmers market on a Saturday afternoon, but depending on who was in town and the time of the year you could find yourself bar hoping watching college football as well.

Finally to wrap things up on a Sunday, you can take your pick of any of the golf courses around the valley to play 18 and enjoy the weather. I enjoy Stonecreek golf course as my home course on Cactus in north phoenix, but you really can’t go wrong when looking for a place to golf in AZ.

I’d say all those things combined would make for a pretty amazing weekend, and if you could sneak a trip into taco boys downtown you could put the cherry on top!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d love to give a shout out to my friends and family. Throughout this entire process they have been so supportive in the creative process, the marketing effort, and even some sales effort! I can always count on my friends to share the instagram page or talk to a stranger at the gym if they see someone with low quality booty bands.

A special shout out to Israel Lamprakes, my best friend, who introduced me and helped me get set up in the E-commerce space to begin with. A secondary shout out to Tommy Hill who connected me to my manufacturer and showed me the ropes to running an online business.

And finally, a huge huge thank you to everyone who has already purchased a set of our amazing bands. I hope you all enjoy the bands at every workout, even the ones that really kick your butt!

Website: https://aestheticwellness.store/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aesthetic_wellness_co/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-iwema-289ab8a3/