While most students wrap up college with the hopes of just walking across the California Baptist University Front Lawn with
a diploma and earning that first job, Joshua J. Poetoehena, junior graphic design major and Jonathan D. “JD” Donald, senior music performance major, successfully launched their own fitness brand before that exiting touch of the Kugel.
The name of their brand is “Lift,” which signifies lifting weights and simultaneously acts as an acronym: Living in Faith and Truth.
Poetoehena and Donald’s dreams of cool designs, inspiring messages and innovative marketing techniques became a reality during the summer of 2013. They worked hard to find a printer who could give them the quality they needed.
Once they found a printer, production began.
Poetoehena is not a business major personally, but he has had the privilege of learning business through first-hand work experience.
“I have sold cell phones for every major carrier,” Poetoehena said. His experience selling mobile phones allowed him to develop a salesman personality.
He picked up techniques by digging for information from business owners
he knows.
CBU offers an excellent business program, as well as an entrepreneurship concentration, for those who are not as naturally business savvy as Poetoehena or Donald.
Poetoehena explained how he has not always had a booming salesman-like personality. Being home-schooled, he did not have the same social experience most students have by going to a school facility everyday.
“I was home-schooled my whole life, so I learned to become social through going to church and meeting friends there,” Poetoehena said, as he claimed to not let his background of home-schooling keep him from achieving his dreams.
“The most important perspective to have as an entrepreneur is a Christ-centered perspective,” Poetoehena said.
Their motto is to “witness through fitness,” keeping their morals centered on God and using their talents and passions to point to Christ.
“He’s an entrepreneur if I’ve ever seen one,” Donald said. “He’s full of creative and inventive ideas.”
Donald and Poetoehena strive to advance their marketing and get their name known.
Their brand will be featured t-shirts, water bottles, and much more. CBU students can purchase this gear at www.LIFTactivewear.com, or contact them via Facebook to save some dollars.
