Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Parks.
Hi Adam, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I own and operate Parks Health, an individual and employee health consulting business. As for my background and how I got to where I am today; I grew up a typical 90’s boy in Virginia wanting to be bigger, faster, and stronger and play and do all the macho things like my “role models” on TV did. So I’ve always been interested in health from a performance perspective, but knew very little outside of lifting weights and eat your Wheaties (not healthy btw) growing up.
The motivation to learn and do more health wise came from a tragedy in my life later on.
When I was 15, I found my father dead on our kitchen floor while I was home alone with him during Thanksgiving break. If my life were a pond, that moment would be the stone that would create the biggest ripple affect on my life by far.
My father had been obese and somewhat unhealthy most of my life. He was limited mobility wise due to a fishing accident, and had little to no knowledge of how to eat healthy, because not many people didn’t back then; especially in central Appalachia where he lived (which is still the unhealthiest region in the U.S). He was also very “high strung” and mentally unwell as he often allowed his emotions to be controlled, to his detriment, by politics, current events, and conflicts with my mom. This was all long before those types of unhealthy behaviors became as prevalent as they are today due to the internet and social media. So, having observed all that as a child and having seen the consequences of it, I wanted to figure out how to prevent those things from not only happening in my life but happening in others lives as well.
That being said, I had no idea where to start and what to do, so most of what I learned early on was through my own trial and error. Over the years though, through those experiences, my own education, and in my personal practice, I’ve developed the skills to be able to help any person in any situation there is I believe. A lot of that is due to the fact that I still work and live in central Appalachia where my dad grew up. A place that is marred in it’s own negative health statistics. But, as such, it’s one that has given me an incredible wealth of knowledge and experiences by working with and helping the people here become healthier, happier versions of themselves.
I can honestly say that I feel like I am at a place in my life where everything has come full circle and I am able to truly make something good out of all the bad, and I am grateful for that.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No is the easy answer.
I left my job in higher education about 15 years ago and give up all the security blankets in life to pursue this passion of mine – a steady job and income, health insurance, a home, etc. And it’s a passion that may or may not have even existed without my father dying when I was 15, which was something I haven’t always coped with in the healthiest ways possible, either.
At the same time, that hard road is what makes it easy for me to do what I do now. Because I have struggled from a health perspective, from a financial perspective, and from an emotional perspective. And so, I’ve been where a lot of people I work with are today, and I know what it’s like to not know what to do or what steps you need to take to be better. So, in short, I can relate to my clients much better than many of the fitness celebrities and health gurus out there can.
But sometimes it’s hard wrestling with that history knowing I wouldn’t be where I am today without all those things happening, and learning everything I have from them because they aren’t things you can’t get from textbooks or certification programs, but at the same time knowing I have learned all that from them because I lost a lot along the way.
That’s life I guess.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
So, my business – Parks Health – serves two groups of people currently. I work with individuals on their personal health, but I also work with businesses on their employee’s health. The two are closely related but also different. On the individual side of things I serve as a health coach, personal trainer, nutritionist, and life coach for most people. With the employee health business, I typically address a business’ employee health (often related to burn out and stress) through presentations, workshops, health programs, environmental and organizational strategies, individual consulting, etc. The x-factor I bring to all this is just my innate ability to truly care for every person I work with. I don’t think that’s something I can accurately explain or quantify, but it is something that is incredibly palpable with the people I work with. Once again, this is my business, but it’s my business because it’s my passion.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I see a huge investment coming to the employee health side of things. Unfortunately, more so in reaction to the neglect and inaction of that investment to date. The amount of money that stress and burn out is causing employers currently, which is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, is only going to increase in the near future. So more and more people will realize the need to invest in their employee’s health as a necessity to improving their business’ health.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.parks-health.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-parks-641ba0111/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkYknuS-NTb-gRAe1_Z060g
