
Jil Tell Awarded Baseline Fitness’s District Manager of the Year for 2020
Baseline Fitness awarded its District Manager of the Year for 2020 to Jil Tell, who has been a part of the Planet Fitness® family since 2013. She was also the Baseline Fitness MVP in 2017.
“The story of how I became a member of the PF Family is kind of funny because I never actually applied for the job!” Tell said. “I had a friend who signed up for a membership during presale, and they mentioned to the club manager that I was working on my Personal Trainers Certification at the time. The manager was looking for a fitness trainer and recommended to my friend that I come in to chat about the opportunity. Little did I know, I was actually receiving a job interview! About a week later, I was offered the position and the rest is history.”
Emily Dobmeier, director of learning and development for Baseline Fitness, explained that she was the regional manager who oversaw the club where Tell got her start. “She was the fitness trainer in Waterloo, Iowa, for the first year it was open,” Dobmeier said. “Then the club manager who hired her was relocating to open another store in our region, and Jil was among a few internal candidates who had been training for and applied for the club manager position.”
Tell worked in Waterloo until another opportunity came to open Baseline Fitness’s Cedar Falls, Iowa location. After running that location for a year, she was promoted to the role of regional training specialist for eastern Iowa. After Tell spent a short time in that position, Baseline Fitness renamed the position and changed their organizational chart to better reflect their clubs; that was when Tell officially became a district manager.
Tell explained that the club members are her favorite aspect of being part of the Planet Fitness family. “This is a corporation where you can meet anyone, and I mean anyone,” she said. “The stories they share, the energy they bring and support and gratitude they provide for the hard work you put in makes everything worthwhile. I miss the days where I had a designated ‘home gym’ because building relationships with members and encouraging them to reach their goals was so rewarding.”
The culture and core values of Planet Fitness stand out to Tell. “PF’s core values – respect, integrity, excellence, transparency, passion and fun – are all qualities that I conduct my life with daily, so it was important for me to find a company that aligns with my personal values,” she said. “Planet Fitness has been my favorite job for many reasons. The atmosphere is fun, rewarding and encourages professional and personal development. As someone who is always interested in progressing, this has been the perfect company with limitless opportunity and recognition for hard work.”
Being awarded the District Manager of the Year title meant the world to Tell. “2020 was personally one of the most difficult years of my life filled with a lot of adversity,” she said. “However, through adversity comes strength and I was not about to leave 2020 without becoming stronger. Throughout 2020, I challenged myself to do more for my franchise and team of managers. I really tried to push myself to become a stronger, more impactful leader, and encouraged my team to do the same. This award allowed me to know those efforts had paid off. I’m so proud to be a part of the Baseline Fitness family and am so grateful for the honor of this award.”
Dobmeier said, “There is no one more passionate or hard working than Jil. She is someone on our team who lives out our core values – teamwork, ownership, passion – each and every day. She is always looking out for the person next to her and has always pushed her team to be the best they can be. She easily builds loyalty and trust with her teams as she never hesitates to go first or lead the way.”