I have to take my inspiration and just go with it.

When a group of us went out for Coach Brandon’s “Orangetheory celebration and farewell,” recently I was blessed by a heartfelt compliment from Rachel. We’ve been doing this OTF thing for a while and as I’ve inspired people, they’ve inspired me.

Just a hidden pic of me coaching, screenshotted and sent back to me!

We’re on this journey together.

If you didn’t know, Kyle, Rachel, and myself are part of the original Orangetheory Seattle crew. We started promoting OTF back when the location was still a pizza restaurant and we’ve been through a lot. I’ve had my own personal struggles during this time, but now I feel like I’ve taken steps to conquer that which tells me no.

At times, it’s been a struggle. A Beautiful struggle.

Before I talk about what she said to me, you should probably know that we’ve been through a lot in this company and that the reason I have stayed is because of the overall mission: Helping many people with health and fitness. Through the trials and tribulations, I’ve had to really figure out what matters to me and push my demons away.

Rachel’s words to me.

She told me something meaningful, that she’s so genuinely impressed about how I’ve been able to grow and challenge myself in the most authentic of ways.

I never would have signed up for dance classes years ago. I never would have started going to yoga regularly years ago. But something clicked.

Something clicked for me.

I felt like some time about two years ago, I hit a personal low. Without getting into the details, I found myself constantly looking to escape and neglecting self-care. At times, I felt depressed but did my best to hide it from everybody.

Reducing and eliminating alcohol and recreational substances was a crucial step for myself. I needed to do activities that gave me a real sense of accomplishment, instead of just in-taking the chemicals that made me feel good for a few hours at a time (and then bad the next morning).

I’m not getting any younger. If I want to find the person to spend my life with, I have to have my life together. Even though we live in this modern age, I must be able to provide a life of health and abundance for my future family and to me that is non-negotiable.

Using physical activities to express myself.

Dance, yoga, etc. allows me to express myself and be a more genuine, authentic person to be around. Even though I feel that I am a private person (as any Scorpio, deep down), I am very interested in truly connecting with people. Before now, fitness was my primary method of connecting with others, but now I’ve got so much more. I’ve got my voice, my art, my practice, and my physical expression.

Goals for DreFitness.com and for myself and my followers.

First and foremost, my goal is to provide genuinely valuable content that adds to the conversation without rehashing or being redundant.

1. Create, publish, and deliver valuable health and fitness content regularly.

This blog currently reaches at least 50 unique people per day, mostly in the USA but dozens of countries are represented. I believe that we have the potential to reach hundreds and then THOUSANDS of people every single day. We can touch so many lives.

2. Grow a YouTube channel in conjunction with Dre Fitness that provides informational, entertaining, and artful videos for viewers and subscribers.

I am excited and absolutely thrilled because I just ordered an awesome all purpose camera for taking high quality pictures and video. (Canon EOS 80D Digital SLR) Here are a few ideas that I’m working with so far:

• Vlog content (Video Logs): Showing you inside my life, following my nutrition habits, learning as we go, seeing inside my workout regime.
• Informational Guides for Nutrition: Learning about the benefits of food, seeing how I prepare my food, etc.
• Exercise demonstrations and tips: Once again, my goal is to ADD to the conversation, NOT to rehash old information. There must be some sort of unique special sauce to my guides or presentations. Maybe it’s new information or maybe it’s my motivational personality.
• Interviews, special presentations of my colleagues and fitness relationships in Seattle: I have ideas about featuring people who I have worked with and met over the years. Through my job as a group HIIT coach, I realize my network has become quite valuable and as I have grown, they have grown. I want to bring you the special talents, information, and motivation that my fellow fitness professionals have to offer. The goal will be to create an aesthetically pleasing feature on each of my fitness friends. Please contact me if you want to be part of this, don’t be surprised if I contact you first!
• Responses to trending topics: Once again, my goal will be to add to the conversation. So when a topic starts trending, it is often controversial or extraordinary, then I will be part of the dialogue. We will be part of the dialogue.

3. Generate a Return on Investment.

Speaking of my last point, yes I just ordered a camera/electronics, but after buying all of the accessories it literally cost me more than a months rent. I’ve been saving for this. On one hand, my thought is that even if I don’t turn a profit, then at least I’ve participated in a VALUABLE hobby (Blogging/Video creation).

People spend thousands of dollars on their hobbies and at least for me, this whole blogging and digital video creation venture does integrate very well into my career as a Fitness Professional and Blogging Personality.

4. Turning my hobbies into my career and creating a lifestyle of abundance.

I honestly do think that I can and will train people for the rest of my life. I’ll never stop being a coach. Somebody asked me recently what other careers I would consider and I told them point blank that I already know what I want. Fitness, nutrition, and health is my career and it is my life long passion, journey, and path.

That being said I don’t mind waking up at 3:30 AM on most days of the week in order to get up and be a motivation for others… for now. But I can’t do this forever. I’m looking into the long term, I’m thinking about the day I start a family that this personal trainer lifestyle is NOT going to be sustainable unless my multiple streams of income are working for me.

5. Continued education and being the best I can be for my friends and followers.

Despite the early and long hours of training and despite the hours of writing, editing, producing, and rendering, I must continue my education. I know what my talent is — it is the ability to read through, comprehend multiple sources, and take the key points and considerations. From there, I can present the information in a fair, unbiased, and authentic way.

I’m so pumped and excited for this even though I know it will be a grind.

I have to be creative. I have to generate value. I must succeed. We. Must. Succeed.

Thanks for reading and seriously stay tuned. Don’t forget to hit the Follow Blog by Email button at the top left of your page. If you’re on mobile device, click the button to show menus/footers to see it.