Liv Jones’ partnership with husband Travis goes beyond what most of us would consider conventional. Together they have two young sons, a Not-for-profit foundation and run multiple successful businesses worth millions.
She Does This sat down with Liv Jones to chat about mixing marriage and business the right way.
Liv on how it all began….
Originally, I worked in sales, particularly in product development and design in the home wares space. I was doing this for 10 years while studying full time at University. My life changed drastically when a previous employer contacted me to move to London and head up their office there.
At this point Trav and I had been friends for a while. I knew him when he opened the first RBT gym. He was struggling to pay the rent on the gym and ran a Groupon discount for their infra-red sauna which I bought, and that’s how we first met…
I ended up moving back home from London and the rest is, well, history!
We started dating in 2012, got married in 2014, and also had our first child, Jax, that same year. Our second son, Finn, was born in August 2017.
Expanding the business outside of the gym….
We have a digital agency called Attain Digital, which was born out of us learning how to do all our own marketing. We were probably one of the first gyms in Australia to embrace Facebook marketing. We were doing all the marketing for the gyms ourselves but once we reached 10 gyms, it became physically impossible. So that’s why we created Attain Digital.
We have been coaching businesses in Facebook, Google and Social Media Marketing for 6 years. We look at optimising all of these with the goal of a return on investment for the business owner, not just likes! We don’t just offer this to gym businesses; we work to help all SME’s in the service industry.
On giving back…
We also have a Not-For-Profit organisation, ‘If Not Now, Then When.’ We created this because we wanted to be visibly giving back. We have two kids, so we wanted to impact children’s education, health and their right to feel safe. We originally partnered with YGAP. We’ve had an RBT Charity Ball, which was amazing, so we’ve got another one coming up this year. We want to give money to less visible charities that may be doing work that goes somewhat unnoticed.
We live with a mindset of abundance and gratitude. If you give, it all eventually comes back. We don’t believe in chasing money and significance. If you come from a good place, everything always works out. We’re more about leaving a legacy than receiving a pay check every month. Everything we do is for a greater purpose.
Marriage, 2 children and running multiple businesses, the ULTIMATE JUGGLING ACT!
It’s all about TEAMWORK! We’ve always taken on a lot. We both thrive under pressure so we kind of enjoy it. It works because we do well in stressful times and don’t get overwhelmed. We’re also really lucky that our kids are just awesome. They have more stamps in their passports than some adults do!
We have an amazing team so that makes it easier. We realise we can’t do everything so it’s vital for us to have a great team around us, which we do.
We embrace and enjoy the chaos.
Liv’s top tips for working with your partner.
If it doesn’t work, STOP. It takes a particular type of couple to be able to do this. You need to understand each other and have really clear limits. Empower each other. Understand what your role is and what you add to the partnership. Never pull each other down. We both have really clear yet different talents. We respect and appreciate each other for those. And neither of us would do anything without the other’s opinion.
You need to have a deep seeded respect for one another. Don’t bring personal stuff into work, especially when you have staff.
Liv’s advice for women wanting to branch out from the 9-5.
I recently read a frightening statistic: only 2% of businesses run by women ever crack a million dollars. I think the reason for that is we second-guess ourselves far more than men do. We doubt ourselves. We’re often undervalued and underappreciated, particularly in certain industries. There is absolutely no reason we can’t do it!
I believe we try to compete with men by being like men but we can achieve so much by bringing our feminine energy into our work.
Know your worth and what you’re capable of and don’t be afraid to go out and get it.
This doesn’t mean bull dozing people.
There’s always a way around, there’s multiple ways of doing things and you’ve never tried everything.
