Over the course of his career, 33-year-old entrepreneur and athlete Joel Runyon has amassed an impressive resume for himself. His biggest success to date has been the performance lifestyle company IMPOSSIBLE, which he founded in 2010 after being laid off as a UPS worker and wanting to better his situation.
He made a list of all the things he wanted to do – but they all seemed impossible. After getting tired of accepting that as reality for too long, Joel decided to turn the word impossible from a statement into a challenge.
The point of IMPOSSIBLE is to provide individuals with the support they need to push their limits and improve their ways of life. IMPOSSIBLE provides a podcast, blog posts, and a newsletter to anyone looking to take those steps to reach new potential.
Joel has built out the brand to include a range of other components, such as an e-commerce business, a website that offers fitness training, and a philanthropic arm to give back. In 2013 he even spoke for a TedX Talk, which has been viewed by over 1.2 million people.
Multiplying a Brand
On top of IMPOSSIBLE, Joel is the founder and owner of a few other successful companies. This includes Ultimate Meal Plans, a nutrition business that spun out from IMPOSSIBLE. They offer a wide variety of meal plans, recipes, and blog posts, as well as companion sites, www.ultimatepaleoguide.com and www.paleodiet.org.
Joel’s third web app is MoveWellApp.com, which focuses on helping individuals strengthen their mobility, flexibility, and recovery through short fitness routines. To make those routines easier and more accessible to people, the site also is flush with research and articles about how to move and feel better.
Blogging changed Joel’s life and last year, he launched an initiative on Startablog.com to help 10,000 people start blogging as well. The company’s goal is to remove any excuses future bloggers have for not starting one – so they setup each blog for free and include $300 in bonuses to anyone who wants one. Creating a blog changed Joel’s life, and he wants to offer that same opportunity to anyone.
A Lifetime Filled With Hard Work and Persistence
Joel first got the entrepreneurial bug as a kid when he started a neighborhood lawn mowing business and scaled it up to a portfolio of about 20 lawns.
In addition to his businesses, as an adventure athlete, Joel has taken on several endurance challenges. In 2017, when he became the youngest person to run an Ultra Marathon on every continent while raising money to build schools around the world. In 2020, Joel launched the Longest Day Race & The Longest Night Race challenge – races where athletes run around a track on the longest day & longest night of the year (respectively) and see how many laps they can complete.
Joel is intensely focused on giving back. Through his challenges he has raised over $300,000 for non-profits and built seven schools in partnership with Pencils of Promise.
Joel can be found on Instagram under the handle @JoelRunyon and at JoelRunyon.com.