Eighteen-year-old Myron Porch knew he would serve in the military — it was a family tradition. He elected the Marine Corps for its reputation as being the most challenging branch. Little did he know that his 22-year career with the Corps would provide him with sterling sales skills that would catapult his sales career in the public sector.

For Porch, enjoying sales success was a constant throughout his military career. Porch developed his skills at the Marine Corps Recruiter School in San Diego and mastered them at Marine recruiting stations in Detroit and Nashville. He completed his career as a recruiter school instructor at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. Along the way he was awarded Top Officer Assistant Recruiter, Top Recruiter of the Month and Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of the Month.

After 22 years in the service, Porch had undergone three knee surgeries that were taking a toll on his body. During his rehabilitation he was introduced to the Total Gym. For four years he worked out daily on the system — used by rehabilitation facilities worldwide — that promotes functional fitness and relies on one’s own bodyweight as resistance. He met Tom Campanaro, the founder of efi Sports Medicine, and when the opportunity surfaced to sell the very equipment that Porch believed in and used daily, he made the decision to leave the service.

Porch’s experience with the Marines was precisely what efi Sports Medicine was looking for in a sales associate. A multi-million dollar company, San Diego-based efi Sports Medicine is best known for the Total Gym, which is used and promoted by athletes and celebrities including Jackie Joyner-Kersey, Christie Brinkley and Chuck Norris. “The sales skills you obtain as a Marine recruiter are top notch,” said efi President and CEO, Tom Campanaro. “Marine recruiters have a long tradition of successfully accomplishing a mission, so we knew from day one that Myron would be an asset to our company.”

In just one year with the company, Porch has been recognized for achieving exclusive entrance into the $100,000 sales club, received the Growth Award and most importantly, was honored with the Innovation Award for initiating and designing the Marine Pull-up Performance System (MPPS). Designed specifically for the Marine Corps Recruiting Command, the MPPS assists recruiters by building their enlistees’ upper-body strength so that they can perform the minimum pull-ups required to ship to recruit training.

"After 22 years in the service, Porch had undergone three knee surgeries that were taking a toll on his body." “As a recruiter, one of my biggest challenges was spending enormous amounts of time and energy trying to enlist an applicant into the delayed entry program, just to discover later that he couldn’t do one pull-up,” Porch said.

efi Sports Medicine’s values of encouraging employees to push themselves and listening to their suggestions provided the perfect environment for Porch to present his innovative idea.

“I convinced efi to invest the time and resources into this project, hoping to provide some help for my fellow recruiters,” he said.

The MPPS has proven to be a huge success, with recruiting stations in Atlanta, Pittsburgh and San Diego, all benefiting from the system and decreasing the number of enlistees failing the pull-up test.

“Overcoming customer concerns and indifference is what the Marine Corps trained me to do for 12 years,” Porch said. “I feel extremely fortunate to have the ability to transfer those skills into this new career. The professional selling skills I learned in recruiting have given me the opportunity to double the salary I earned during my last year in the Corps in just one year!”

Porch’s duties as a sales associate and fitness consultant also requires traveling to New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas.

“I love my new career,” Porch said. “And I would advise my fellow Marine recruiters to continue to sharpen their sales skills because they can be very rewarding in your next life.”