After my cycling career ended due to an injury that led to chronic pain, I fell into a deep depression and felt as if my life was over at 19 years old.

During this time, I discovered fitness and a strength coach who helped me escape from pain and get my life and mind back on track. He inspired me to pursue a career in strength coaching.

I then researched what was required to become a strength coach and realized I lacked the necessary education. This realization set me on a path to further my education, leading to two years of night school to upgrade my lackluster academic record and be accepted into a kinesiology program at university—a feat I had thought impossible. Growing up, I was often called dumb and stupid by teachers and was placed in a special needs class where I learned nothing and became a troublemaker out of boredom.

However, during my comeback, I pushed very hard and made significant improvements in a short period. Spelling was always a huge barrier, but I managed to overcome it and was accepted into three schools for their kinesiology programs.

After researching and talking to coaches I met, I settled on Sheridan College’s kinesiology program as my program of choice. It was small but offered numerous co-ops and practical courses, which I badly wanted to acquire hands-on skills from the start.

I had to work harder than all my other classmates to pass courses and did so with no financial support, going into a lot of debt. Despite these challenges, I excelled in classes related to strength coaching, achieving 90%s, while just passing everything else.

My education was not limited to the classroom. I sought out top coaches to learn from both at the college and externally. In my first year, I started powerlifting to understand firsthand what it took to be strong. I fell in love with the sport, setting a few college and Canadian junior records for squatting.

I also interned under some of the top strength coaches in the country at the University of Guelph for three years, eventually working up to being the assistant strength coach for the football team. I spent 30 hours a week there each year on top of school to learn as much as I could before graduating and hopefully landing a strength coaching position at a college or university in Canada.

Upon graduation, with experience both in and out of the classroom, I was one of the top strength coaching graduates of the program.

I quickly realized how difficult it was to secure your first strength coaching job and that the pay was very low. Having funded my education through loans, I had no money and needed a job while searching for a team to work with. Thus, I started as a personal trainer at Goodlife.

I impressed clients with my skills, ability to produce results, and care for my clients. However, I soon left to work for a larger health club, which proved to be a good fit. I slowly built up a roster of personal training clients focusing on fat loss and improving function, and on the side, I also started a powerlifting coaching business, both in-person and online, at another gym.

During this time, I continued to seek out top-level experts and learned from them. I took a total of 30 courses and attended many seminars. I noticed shortcomings in the fitness industry regarding trainers’ ability to achieve results for their clients, so I became obsessed with how to achieve better outcomes.

I researched diet and behavior change theory extensively, making connections that I then applied uniquely to each of my clients, propelling their results. I quickly became the top trainer in the company, booking 60-70 sessions a week and achieving the highest possible results for every single client I coached.