Travis Zipper

Find a career path that gives you butterflies in your stomach and makes you feel rewarded each and every day.

 

Travis Zipper is an entrepreneur serving clients as a functional diagnostic nutritionist, mentor, and trainer of health coaches within the healthcare industry.

Travis grew up in Chicago and attended Northern Illinois State University for a year then transferred to Arizona State University to study Computer Engineering. However, after graduating from the engineering program at Arizona State, Travis concluded that life as a computer engineer would not be a fulfilling enough for him and he shifted gears to find a new path.

Travis supported himself by working in random clubs and he even tried his hand at real estate.

Once he discovered the health and nutrition industry, and when he felt as though he was making a difference in the lives of others. He knew that this new career path felt right for him.

Currently, Travis Zipper is the owner of Wellfitz Mentorship for health coaches. He is also a health practitioner that assists a variety of clients with lifestyle solutions to meet their goals and many of his clients face difficult challenges with compromised health issues. However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, he also works with the very healthy and high-level athletes.

As the Owner of the Wellfitz Mentorship, Travis Zipper is a trainer and mentor where he teaches professional health coaches the protocols for coaching the difficult clients by providing them with the tools that will allow all coaches the ability to work with a full spectrum of clients. After all is said and done, he provides students with application-based mentorships and certifications. He stays current by meeting with other professional coach trainers in the industry who also focus on helping clients make a difference.

Where did the idea for WellFitz Mentorship come from?

I currently worked for a company called The Nutritional Coaching Institute (NCI) and I have written several courses for that company and continue to teach them to health coaches. However, in 2019 the certification platform went from teaching coaches face to face to almost a 100% digital and online platform. After the digital certification was accomplished, there was very little coaching interaction in my life. If nothing else. It took away the one-on-one aspect of the business. That is one of the reasons as to why I decided to go out create one step up for the coach who really wants the confidence to handle more of the difficult types of clients and just work well with others.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

My days are long but definitely enjoyable. I am in school studying for my doctorate program for clinical nutrition and I usually get up at 4:30 am in the morning. I study and do schoolwork for the first three hours before I begin with my own coaching client calls. I spend about two to three hours speaking with coaches and clients. After that I usually take a break after my calls and stretch my legs and take a nice walk down to the beach. After my break, I get back to either working on either content for school or for the Wellfitz coaches. Somewhere in those days, I always get in some exercise and I eat some good quality foods and I stay on track by setting a specific time durations for specific tasks or time blocking and then I stick to those blocks.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I bring ideas to life by actually implementing the idea. Then, I aim to teach that idea to someone else, as a test to see if I really have a grasp on it or not. As I feel if you can teach someone a new idea and get the same results that you have had in doing so, then you know you may just have something. In other words, you may think that you have the best idea in the world but until you test the waters and apply that idea you really won’t know for sure. It could be a diet plan or supplement that you test on yourself to see if it will work. If so, you can in a way say that you have mastered the concept and then you can teach it to others.

What’s one trend that excites you?

One trending topic at the moment that I can truly appreciate and really in a way, geek out on is the trend of longevity and extending our years on the planet in good health. We are slowly figuring out what stresses us and how to be stress-free and live a better life. People are slowly learning to have a healthier balance in life and how to extend our years on this planet.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

As an entrepreneur, I am super driven to get things done and when I am focused, I have a bit of tunnel vision until I get the task accomplished. However, I also understand how to delegate tasks when it would be a better use of my time to do so.

What advice would you give your younger self?

My advice to my younger self would be to find something that gives you butterflies in your stomach and chase it. It should be something that also makes you feel rewarded. And don’t stop looking until you find something that makes you feel that way. Once you find it, you will have found your calling. And it should not be all about chasing the almighty dollar.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

I believe the current medical system is broken. We are on a downward trend and people are just getting sicker and sicker. We as a population need to get our heads out of the sand and do something about our food and our health. We have to address physical, financial, and many of the mental issues before they become critical.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

One thing I would recommend is going to bed every night at the same time and waking up every day at the same time. Sticking to a sleep schedule is going to only be beneficial to any person. By doing so, it will help you to be much more effective during your day and prevent you from burning the candle at both ends.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

One strategy that has helped me grow my business is having a genuine interest in finding a good custom solution for each individual client or coach that I work with. I believe my clients know that I am not here to just sell products or squeeze more money out of them. I am genuinely here to help clients solve their issues.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

I used to take-on entirely too much. I had too much on my plate at any one given time and I also had no idea how to ask for help. I finally learned from a mentor and a coach on how to address many of those issues in a much more efficient manner. I also learned how to effectively delegate tasks to others.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

One idea for a new business is for an owner to create an avatar of their perfect and ideal client. Then I would tell that person to go and mentally put themselves in that person’s shoes and feel their pain and try to imagine the struggles and pains that keep them up at night. If and when you can do that you will be able market and attract a specific group of people that would benefit the most from working with you.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

The most recent hundred dollars that I ‘ve spent was going out to dinner with a really good friend and keeping a good connection alive. Too many people these days don’t take the time to keep the good connections in their lives with the good people in their lives active.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

I do a lot of group calls and chats. The combination of Calendly online calendar and scheduler program along with the integration of the group call options on the Zoom platform has been a huge help and is perfect for my business. These technologies allow clients to set their appointments and connect to calls all through a single click and it also can record the calls with just one additional click.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

I would recommend Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen. It is a heartwarming collection of stories of a doctors’ life who has helped people with mental and emotion issues and even starting her career as an enologist that primarily worked with children fighting cancer.

What is your favorite quote?

“Living the dream.”

Key Learnings:

• Find a career path that gives you butterflies in your stomach and makes you feel rewarded each and every day.
• Once you find a career or path where you do feel rewarded, then you may have just found your calling. It is not all about chasing the almighty dollar.
• Sticking to a sleep schedule is beneficial to everyone. It will help you to be effective and prevent you from burning out when buring the candle at both ends.