Today we’d like to introduce you to John Watson
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
John Watson started his 32-year mortgage banking career at Mellon Bank, working his way up to an executive level in his early 30’s at that organization, responsible for bank territory and the eastern part of the country for bank’s mortgage division. Shortly after leaving Mellon Bank, he founded his own mortgage banking firm, Community Home Loan, that he eventually sold to a publicly traded bank. Among many other mortgage industry leadership positions, he also served as the president of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association.
John and Jill Watson have a beautiful daughter, Emma, who lives with an intellectual and developmental disability diagnosis. As Emma grew up, the Watsons found options to support Emma’s physical and emotional health through movement and fitness. But as she entered adulthood, options that met her unique needs seemed to be few and far between. John and Jill knew they wanted to fill this gap using their passions for fitness, people with IDD, and philanthropy.
This landed John at Texana Center – a large IDD service provider headquartered in Rosenberg, Texas. Here he found a room full of unused fitness equipment. According to staff, fitness programming had not worked as clients became uninterested over time. John left, knowing what he needed to do: build a fitness program that would lead adults with IDD to choose a lifetime of fitness. Thus began Bloom: a program that is much more than fitness equipment. It is a place where athletes like Emma feel they belong, are confident in creating new lifelong fitness practices, and wake up every morning excited for the next Bloom class.
Today, Bloom has grown beyond its meager beginnings, offering yoga, Pilates, chair, strength, cycle and dance classes in five states and numerous locations. We offer all of these fun classes in person and through the Bloom Fitness app and our athletes love them. However, what has driven the success of Bloom for this population is that we Lead With Heart. That means that Bloom makes an emotional connection with each athlete. These connections come in many forms – having fun with friends, a goal system that can create a sense of pride and accomplishment, or simply having the opportunity to be part of a community that is super cool.
John often reminds people that Bloom has become an impactful program because of what he has learned from those in the program that live with an IDD diagnosis, Bloom’s athletes. John says, “If a person will take the time to make an authentic connection with people living with an IDD diagnosis, they will tell what motivates them and how to best serve them.”
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are always struggles as an organization grows, but we have not had too many. Bloom continues to work to offer more meaning to people living with an intellectual and developmental disability diagnosis, so we are always trying more and new ways to do that. Sometimes our ideas don’t work, but we are grateful that most of the times we have. When they do work out, our athletes respond in such a grateful and joyous way, which inspires us to keep moving forward.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
This is a repeat of the beginning of the story told at the start of the survey.
John Watson started his 32-year mortgage banking career at Mellon Bank, working his way up to an executive level in his early 30’s at that organization, responsible for bank territory and the eastern part of the country for bank’s mortgage division. Shortly after leaving Mellon Bank, he founded his own mortgage banking firm, Community Home Loan, that he eventually sold to a publicly traded bank. Among many other mortgage industry leadership positions, he also served as the president of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association.
I retired from the mortgage industry about 10 years ago to create something that would make a difference in the lives of people living with an IDD diagnosis.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
There are only 4 full time employees at Bloom. However, we have numerous volunteers that help us. A powerful and engaged board of directors. Many people that donate to our Bloom Fitness athletes. We also partner and collaborate with many organizations that serve people with IDD throughout the Houston area and 5 states.
By the way, the headquarters of Bloom is Houston
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bloomfitness.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloomfitnesscommunity/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloomfitnesscommunity
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/66755127/admin/dashboard/
- Other: www.gobloom.org. to access our app, or on the App Store
