The Origins of Strong Dogs
As anyone who’s ever seen one of my YouTube videos knows, I’m 100% transparent. So with that said I’ll let my ego do the speaking on this one. Being perfectly honest and in the most simplistic way possible I wanted to have something that is completely, undeniably mine. Something that I have absolute ownership of. Something that I was 100 % committed to. And if pursued, it’ll 100% scare the shit out of me. This checks all those boxes. Now let me put my ego in check.
Although the above is completely true. As always in life there’s more to it than that. It took me a long time to get where I was yet again , ready to fully go all in on but this time, not quit. With that it’s best to start at the beginning because surprise, surprise dog training was not my original trade. If I ever had one. But maybe you’ll see a common theme here. If not it’ll be revealed at the end.
When I was a kid, I loved movies and tv. Still do to this day. So naturally I wanted to be an actor. But that was only a dream. I never even attempted trying. Had other dreams of doing other things. As a kid I loved playing golf with my dad and brother . Growing up really only got to play when we were together. But once I got my drivers license it was game on. I spent hours at the driving. The goal was only to get on the high school team and was able to do it. During that time I’m like, ‘I’d love to play on tour.’ Had people saying I have so much potential. But that was about all I had. Didn’t have either the discipline, the drive, hunger, definitely not the skill to even play collegiate.
The next two things run parallel with each other. I ended up working in a golf shop during college - that’s the closest I got to playing collegiate golf. And I decided at the last second to switch my studies at university from Athletic Training to Film, specifically creative writing because I wanted to become a writer. Whether if movies or television I didn’t care. I always admire great writing and writers. Until I discovered long drive competitions. Because since I couldn’t chip or putt to save my life at least I can make some dough fitting it far. And as I was progressing with writing I entered a few screenwriting competitions happen to done pretty well in those. Won one even. In long drive I won a local and placed in a regional. So here it is my confidence and even ambition is on the rise, thinking ok got two things going for me. Can’t wait to see the next big leap with either one of these. Then nothing happened. No agent wanted to take me on. No monetary gain happened with writing. My body went to shit while practicing long drive. And I never got to the national level. Burn out set in.
After that went to work in a hotel as a Bell Man. I just wanted to get away from golf. I stopped writing. And looking back I was pretty much lost. Usually every 2-3 years is my cut off point where I lose interest in what I’m doing or my interest shifts. And like clock work after couple years at the hotel it was time for me to move on. I’m not saying anything to disparage Bell Men in anyway, but I just knew deep down I had more , I had more to give.
So I got my Personal Training certification. I got it more for shits and giggles cause I liked working out so why not? By summer of 2018 they had just opened a new gym by where I was living so I interviewed and got the job. From the interview thru my first week I was pretty much lied to. How we got clients and how we got paid was actually not how it was presented to me by the manager at the time. During my second day of onboarding the manger got up and walked out. So we’re off to a great start here. Since I didn’t have clients I thought I’d stay in at the hotel until things picked up at the gym. But the hotel cut me. Awesome.
With how we got paid at the gym it was tough in the beginning. I wasn’t getting clients, I went into some decent size debt. I did the only thing I could do which was to go all in. With some grit and a lot of help I was able to excel and become one of the top trainers in the company the following year.
That year I became assistant personal training manger. 2020 was Covid and as anyone knows that was not a fun time period. Later that year I got promoted to Personal Training Manager. That year we finished 2nd in the company. The next year, 2021, we did two things which would be my proudest moments. We set 2 industry records . First to do $300k plus in PT revenue. And first club to do over $2 million dollars. Not to sound like a resume there was a ton of stress during all this. Made some decent dough during this period, the most I’ve ever made in my life actually. But it cost me a ton of stress and lost time. And like clock work I lost interest. Hitting numbers didn’t do it for me anymore. Aiming for records was boring. I wanted to develop people. What I wanted to do I knew would take time. But when you do what we did that heavy spot light is shining bright on you and all eyes are on you . And believe me I felt every single one. But I wanted to stay in my lane and do what I wanted to do. Could be ego but I felt it was right and the only thing to keep me locked in.
But when you miss big numbers the months of January, February, and March in the gym business changes need to be made. So with stress at its peak. Upper management was a mix bag of personalities and he said he said. Being stuck in the middle, people seeing what I was going through, no one wanted to be there anymore. I didn’t. It wasn’t a fun when it used to be. They wanted to move me in some capacity but I decided to step down . Even the money wasn’t worth it.
That’s when I saw, it’s never enough. Any sales person, any hourly employee, any middle to lower management understand the phase, ‘it’s never enough.’ No matter what we did yesterday doesn’t matter today or tomorrow. I understand business but how it’s treated matters. And although I’m very appreciative of what this company has given me no matter how hard I worked, it would never be mine. This is where real ownership became my ambition. I don’t mind the very long hours each week, I just got tired of it being for someone else. Mentally, physically, emotionally I couldn’t do it anymore. I got to old for it. So that year , 2022, I looked for another avenue to help create something. My buddy tried helping me. Some stuff just wasn’t for me because I had no interest in it. Then made a triple bogey with an online business that I funded but someone else managed. Well that failed miserably, got into a large some of debt that caused equal or more stress than before.
Again my ambition was greater than what I was ready for. Getting into stuff that either wasn’t for me or doing a get rich quick scheme for money. So after a long period of pontification with one of my favorite beverages, decided if I was really gonna make this jump into ownership and have something of the kind of success and maybe even notoriety I need not just interest it but real love of it. Because the growth needed scared the shit out of me. Doing something for me scared the shit out of me. The ‘what would people think?’ The ‘what if I fail?’ Any version of those, every worse fear was entertained. That’s why I looked for the easy path. Cause the hard path frightened the fuck out of me. To the point I felt emotionally crumbled. Physically sick with myself.
If you’ve read this long I promise this comes full circle.
My ex and I always wanted a dog, a German shepherd. So 2019 we got Ace. And we love him. And I really got into training him. But as I was climbing the ranks at the gym, training him took a back seat. He’s still a great boy. But Covid was a blessing in disguise for this. We had so much time together I wanted to get into it and found Robert Cabral website and YouTube videos. Between going to my other trainer Ed’ Reyes and Robert’s online course, this knowledge this was my foundation for dog training. So then we got a second dog but I wanted one with more drive because I wanted to compete a dog because I grew to understand, enjoy and love dog sport . My thinking was, let’s get too much dog to handle so it’ll up my game because we either succeed together or I fail the dog. And that wasn’t going to happen. By doing this I knew it would fast track me skill level, up my know how, see how good I was at training, motivate me and drive me to get better, Ava provided all of that. And boy does she. She had every problem possible . With a shit ton of patience, practice and understanding she’s done extraordinary well.
People started seeing what I was able to do with her and that’s why people asked me about their dog troubles. And when I was able to help them. You probably can see I’m not the smartest person but it doesn’t take brains to see the writing is on the wall.
It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.’- Albus Dumbledore
I want to be a dog trainer.
So why did it take so long to get here? Well I wanted to show you what I was was up against. 34 years of failures or worst yet, average at best . In late 2022 I hit a breaking point when I made a decision to do something. After watching a shit ton of inspiring videos on instagram and Tony Robbins videos about success, personal change and internal fears . When you’re that low and you don’t want to live a life of could’ve, would’ve, should’ve. There’s nothing else to do cause you can’t get any lower. So I jumped. I made a couple voice less videos and put them on Instagram and YouTube. Then took another jump and made talkies on YouTube. I got over it and accepted I was going to suck tremendously. Everyone sucks at starting something new. I kept telling myself it’s ok, just keep going. Everyone’s has a bogey on the scorecard all what matters is the next shot. And figuring out how to get little bit better. I used the first 100 videos as practice . Because I’m doing something I never done before. I went in with the mentality of make them as if no one is watching , if people did then I’d be surprised. But fully commit with unshakeable faith, belief and trust everything will work out.
