"What I want you to know is who and what kind of man I am…"
I don’t want to bore you with a list of stats & certs. I have them, but what I want you to know is who and what kind of man I am… And ultimately, where Body Styles Fitness comes from.
In 2001 I was honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps. About five years later fitness training was actually only one of the three “jobs” I had at the time however, it was the only one I actually liked. I’ve never worked at a gym, I just earned a certification through AFPA and started doing personal training sessions from my apartment gym during my time off from the other jobs. One night, I decided I was going to start up an outdoor fitness boot camp at the park down the street from where I lived (Copperfield Community Center) and that’s where things really started to take off.
The boot camp was a success. I began to make the same amount of money from training and doing what I loved as I was from my corporate job. I took a look at my past, then into my future; I promptly quit that job then proceeded to grow my client base. I quit that job for several reasons, but mainly I didn’t like the idea of working hard and never reaping the full financial benefits of what I was doing. I could essentially give myself a raise whenever I wanted one, all I had to do was find another client (so I thought… we’ll get back to this) I was tired of taking my son to that awful daycare and paying them $400 per month to basically toss him in a room with some other kids and pop in PG 13 movies when he was only 6 years old. I was tired of not having control of my time and my life… my corporate job controlled that for me. So again, I quit. Everyone I knew told me that I was stupid for leaving my job which offered 401K, and full health and dental benefits in order to grow my fitness business. My mother told me to go apply for at the post office since I had served as a U.S. Marine and it would help with the hiring process… Bless her heart, there's nothing wrong with working for the postal service, but it's just not me.
Moving forward into growing my business, I pretty much went broke and needed to cash out the little bit of money I had in my 401K in order to pay my rent and buy groceries. That was a defining moment for me. I was faced with two choices, either admit total failure and defeat, showing everyone they were right or man up and make it work. There was no way on God’s green earth I was going to give all of those people the satisfaction nor was I ever going back to working for someone else. You see for me; it wasn’t really about being wealthy; it was about having control of my life. I knew that as long as I had a “boss,” I would never have control over my time, money, or circumstances… they would. So I made it work; I made enough money doing the boot camps to be able to sustain and be independent.
Several years later, I was at a place where I felt “stuck.” I felt stuck in my career and business meaning it wasn’t going anywhere. Six years had flown by and I hadn’t given myself a real raise in pay and I was still training people at the local park. I was still my own man and I controlled my life however, I was ready for and desperately needed a breakthrough. After racking my brain about how to make more money and take my business to the next level, I met some new friends. These new friends showed me what was financially possible if I became an AdvoCare distributor and remained coachable as they showed me how to earn income. They also gave me this shirt that I’m wearing in the photo, “Follow Me To Freedom.” This shirt means a lot to me because it’s all I ever wanted in the first place; my freedom from working for someone else. I wanted to work hard building my dreams, not someone else’s. I wanted to be the master of my time and my life. My wife and I used the extra income from our AdvoCare business to pay off some debt and get to a position where we felt confident in our finances. Once we were there, we decided that it was time to take Body Styles Fitness Training from an outdoor boot camp at a local park to an actual facility… with a roof and an address ;-). This would have never been a possibly without using AdvoCare as a means for the extra money. I never wanted to take out business loans to grow my business because I didn’t want more bills to pay and we were already in debt. With the money we earned from AdvoCare we were able to open up our fitness studio “Body Styles Fitness Training” with 100% cash money. It felt amazing to open those doors and know that everything inside was paid for with cash and my business was “in the black” on opening day.
Today, more than 10 years later, Body Styles Fitness Training stands “in the black” and I couldn’t be more proud of what it has become. I get to do what makes me feel good for a living… Helping people become more than they ever believed possible.
Thank you for being a part of my journey!
-Antwan-
