Naperville businessman: ‘Helping people is my goal’

Naperville resident Steve Hlavac is combining his passion for fitness and training to help others and launch his career.

“Helping people is my goal,” says Hlavac, founder and owner of Beyond Measure Training in Naperville. His business was founded on that principle and his life reflects it.

Hlavac is a graduate of Naperville North High School and North Central College, where he graduated in 2012 with a degree in exercise science.

Hlavac has always loved fitness and training. At North Central, he’s the all-time leader in receptions and receiving yards in football and was an outfielder in baseball.

That passion led to helping college friends with personal training and evolved into a career and the launch of his business.

A personal training club, Beyond Measure Training provides individual attention in small, structured classes or one on one.

“People want to experience success when training. Here, they progress through levels of training and become really good at what they’re doing, which is motivating and empowering in other areas of life, too,” Hlavac says. “Helping people is my goal. I’ve done everything I can to be prepared to do that.”

That preparation started while in college when a faculty member he barely knew confronted him about his obsession with sports and apathy toward studies.

“She held me accountable, which I needed, and told me I could achieve,” he says. “Since then, I’ve tried to hold myself accountable every day.”

Hlavac is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He also is Training For Warriors-certified, a physical and mental training program. He studied the business and sales side of fitness on his own and followed his passion.

Hlavac committed to donate a portion of Beyond’s earnings every year to a charity that represents qualities such as hard work, perseverance, courage and dedication and service to others. The first year’s donation will go to the Shaun Wild Memorial Scholarship at North Central College.

The late Shaun Wild, who was killed in February 2012, was Hlavac’s college roommate, football teammate and best friend.

Recently, Hlavac offered his business as a drop-off site to help collect and distribute supplies to people who were affected by the Nov. 17 tornadoes in Illinois. He and his certified fitness trainer, Kate Crawford of Coal City, personally delivered supplies to Crawford’s hometown.

Beyond Measure Training is located at 600 Industrial Drive in Naperville. To learn more, visit beyondmeasuretraining.com.