NEW HARTFORD — Jack Kunkel was working for his family’s Kunkel Ambulance Service in Utica in 2008 when he become quite ill. Kunkel, who was serving as the company’s director of operations and as a paramedic, says he had no energy and was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue and depression. His illness, Kunkel says, didn’t make […]
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NEW HARTFORD — Jack Kunkel was working for his family’s Kunkel Ambulance Service in Utica in 2008 when he become quite ill.
Kunkel, who was serving as the company’s director of operations and as a paramedic, says he had no energy and was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue and depression.
His illness, Kunkel says, didn’t make sense because he worked out daily and looked like the “epitome of health.”
It turned out that Kunkel wasn’t sleeping enough and didn’t understand how to control his own stress, he says.
At the time, he was seeking several physicians and health-care practitioners that just weren’t able to help him, Kunkel adds.
“So I … went on a quest to help myself, and that’s [when] I fell in love with wellness,” says Kunkel.
He is now the sole owner of Revolutionary Wellness, a New Hartford–based firm he launched in 2010.
It operates in an office at the Paragon Athletic Club location at 8387 Seneca Turnpike in New Hartford, says Kunkel.
Revolutionary Wellness focuses on wellness and nutrition, and includes a corporate-wellness program that includes lectures and customizable instruction for companies, both large and small, according to its website.
When asked how he’s feeling nowadays, the 38-year-old father of two proclaimed, “I’ve never felt better.”
Kunkel spoke with the Business Journal News Network on Nov. 7.
“There’s so much more to wellness than people just thinking I should stand more at my desk or I need to walk after work … There’s a whole gamut and when you teach people that stuff, it’s exciting when they change their lives,” he says.
Kunkel contends the program benefits employers with lower health-care and disability costs; enhanced employee productivity; reduced employee absenteeism; decreased rates of illness and injuries; enhanced corporate image; improved employee satisfaction, recruitment, and retention.
For employees, the benefits include more access to health-promotion resources and social support; improved health status and job satisfaction; lower out-of-pocket costs for health-care services, reduced premiums, deductibles, and co-payments; lower costs for acute health issues; and increased well being, self image, and self esteem.
Carbone Auto Group and PAR Technology Corp. (NYSE: PAR) are customers of Revolutionary’s corporate-wellness program.
Kunkel also handles clinical nutrition and weight loss for individuals. Kunkel has worked with a “couple hundred” individuals on those concerns in the past few years, he says.
Some organizations have also requested he provide programs during the lunch hour for their employees, including a recent visit to Hamilton College.
He’ll also try to help companies that have a specific wellness request.
“I would be able to build a program specifically for them,” says Kunkel.
Kunkel has one full-time employee. Dominick Manfredo serves as the firm’s vice president and is responsible for day-to-day operations including marketing, sales, and communication for Revolutionary Wellness.
He also works with two doctors and a therapist who serve as consultants as Kunkel assembles the lectures he delivers as part of the company’s corporate-wellness programs.
He works with Dr. Joseph Colosi, who specializes in functional and wellness medicine and is board-certified in family medicine; Dr. Kareem Hamad who practices as a hospitalist at St. Elizabeth Medical Center; and Robert Wittman, a therapist who works with individuals, couples, and families in a privately held practice for more than 20 years, according to the Revolutionary Wellness website.
Wittman operates a practice in Clinton, according to a Google search.
Kunkel has organized more than 40 lectures on topics that include introduction to weight loss and wellness; fat loss and increasing metabolism; food quality; stress; goal setting; food psychology; and how to sleep, he says.
Kunkel declined to disclose his firm’s revenue information, but noted the “business has always been profitable from day one.”
New Hartford–based Trainor, which describes itself as a “strategic planning, brand strategy, and business optimization consultancy,” helped create the Revolutionary Wellness website.
Kunkel has a master’s degree in applied clinical nutrition from New York Chiropractic College in Seneca Falls in 2013 and a bachelor’s degree in general studies from Empire State College in 2010, along with several certifications.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
