The fitness industry started at very early beginnings for me. I remember being ten years old and swiping cards at some of the biggest clubs in Queensland and thinking how different gyms were to everywhere else my Dad took me. I would sit in banks and wonder why everyone was so bored but then when I came to the gym, everyone was smiling and talking about how good their training was going. It always fascinated me, but I never thought much of it after that.
At school I was a footballer, not Australian football, but the real football (soccer if you still haven’t got me yet). I have played soccer since I was three years old and it’s where I thought my life would take me. I was taken in at a Korean soccer academy based at John Paul College where I continued to learn my trade and fill a goalkeeping spot that was vacated at the time. It opened some of the biggest doors I have had in my life. At thirteen I was lucky enough to be selected to go play in England against some of the biggest clubs in the world. At fourteen I did it again the next year and made a good impression. Playing against, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal at fourteen was something truly special for me and getting to train alongside these teams introduced me to some of my heroes at an exceptionally young age. As life does, it throws you a few curveballs here and there. I have never been one for excuses but my lack of height and bad luck with injuries clearly decided for me that football was not going to be how I made a quid as they would eventually tell me over there.
I came back to Australia lost, 15 years old, no idea what I wanted to do and living in the past of faded hopes and dreams. I got taken into a program at John Paul College called ‘Horizons’ which allowed me to play football, study only half the usual amount and study my way into fitness training which my Dad had recommended for me. I would stay an extra year at school to do all this but I had some of the best times in my life. To be completely honest, I really had no interest in fitness training at all before I started the course, but in the first second of my first day I knew I would definitely enjoy it. In my last year at school my careers advisor said to me that I was absolutely kidding myself and that I need to register for a trade. What a motivator this was and it drove me harder than ever and from that moment I had to succeed! I had one condition with my study, Dad couldn’t teach me. I wanted to do this on my own. I think all of us get to the stage where you want to earn your own keep. Mine happened at sixteen, I think my parents wondered what they had done wrong!
After finishing my course I thought I was a bit of a superstar, I got my first shift handed to me as a receptionist doing opens at 5 am. I was working on the other side of town so this meant a 3 am wake up to have the gym open in time. I was always money hungry so not only was I up at 3 in the morning but I was working a bar job till about 11 at night, it was horrific to say the least but taught me so much about hard work and how far it can take you. My first shift I spent cleaning toilets and swiping cards again. Gee thanks Dad, glad I studied! But it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Since then I have done everything by myself just like he had hoped. It is so important to make your own way in life, some day my children will receive the same deal. After saving some money up, I started buying equipment and built up my business Mobile Fitness Queensland. These three words have changed my life completely. The first year I was working seventy hours a week. I was sleep deprived, anti social and moody! But I have absolutely no regrets, it led me to one of the best lifestyles I could possibly have. All the things I dreamed about having as a kid, I earnt myself and it feels incredible. Currently I look back at my first year and I wonder how I could ever do it. I get frustrated these days if I don’t get golf in twice a week or miss the midday movie. Business is a funny thing; you ask any business owner. You get the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows.
Mobile Fitness Queensland is now responsible for some of the best gigs in Queensland and those who know me, know how much I enjoy what I do. We work in an amazing industry and are truly blessed as fitness professionals. I have some of the best trainers working underneath me and the business will continue to stride forward in new directions. Personal Training is just the start; you never know where it will finish.
