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My story
From the shores of Lake Erie to Pennsylvania Ave. and beyond.
My career is in fitness.
I built my company to manage onsite fitness centers for government agencies and Fortune 500 companies.
My first client was the White House (yes, that White House) at age 24.
I was living my dream as an entrepreneur in the corporate fitness industry.
Six years later, I had a chance to really grow big!
I sold my company to a Corporate Medical company and became a subsidiary focusing on corporate fitness and wellness.
I traveled the world, had a powerful-sounding title, wore a suit to the office (I hated it), and worked as a high-level executive partner with some of the most famous clients in the world.
I was paid well, lived in a nice neighborhood, had a country club membership, and drove a fancy car.
But the story behind the story was that while everything looked good on the outside, on the inside, I was hurting.
The more successful I got at it, the less I wanted to do it.
I got into the fitness business (against my dad's advice) to help others at a personal level, but here I was, working with big corporations, and not at that one-to-one level.
It's funny — how something of sorrow happens that changes your life.
That something for me was in 2006.
Mom was in a Pittsburgh hospital in her final stage of cancer.
I went first.
I sat on the side of her bed; she looked at me and said,
"I am so proud of what you've done in your life, but you work too hard"!
I left the room in tears.
She died two days later.
On my drive back to Virginia, I decided that Mom was right.
I did work too hard and missed too many life events.
So, I went to the company's Chairman and said – "I'm done."
He said, "What?
You need to think about this.
You have a fancy car. The big house. More money than you ever dreamed. The country club membership.
Why give that all away?"
My answer was simple – "I want to live."
So, a little more than a year after Mom died, I left my high-paying job, sold pretty much everything I owned, including my fancy house, and decided to take Mom's advice and "live."
I had promised her that at some point in my life, I would earn a master's degree.
She also loved Ireland.
So, I combined the two and, in her honor, earned my Master of International Business and Entrepreneurship in Ireland (and played a little golf as well).
Just as I was finishing my Master's degree, the Irish government asked if I would be interested in a Ph.D. (they would pay for it).
I thought for a bit (3 more years of fun, golf, and travel in Europe with an exciting opportunity to learn even more). I said yes, but only if I could study how we can use mobile phones to improve physical activity through social networks.
They put me in the School of Engineering, and I studied exactly that – disruptive health technology, Twitter, and emerging business tools in the fitness industry.
(I still laugh at that, I can't even draw a straight line, but I have a Ph.D. in Engineering).
I've been blessed to put all the pieces together now.
• My exercise science education
• My entrepreneurial skills
• Understanding of traditional learning of business
• My technology savvy
• My passion for helping others
…to create a very unique and special brand that I hope to be able to share with you.
I now teach future fitness entrepreneurs how to embrace technology to "work smarter, not harder" and to achieve their dream of breaking free from the traditional gym and "dream big."
One of the things I teach is how to write a compelling story like this one. If you emotionally reacted to this story and you don't have your own, let me help.