Last Saturday I attempted to give thanks to those who have helped me get to where I am now. I expected to be emotional about it, but I didn’t think that I would be totally speechless and unable to put words together that really meant anything. This gym is quite literally my whole life.
The only friends I have here are all clients of mine or indirectly came from training. I met Nicole at the gym. Everyone we are friends with and hang out regularly with such as Brandon and Sarah, Nicole and Rocco, Jess and her husband Adam, Jorge and Emily, Shay and Issac, and Ben and Liz all came directly from the gym. Many of my other clients I would also consider friends such as Chris, Kerry, and Jeff.
I met the whole volleyball community because of the gym. Starting with Bethel Park’s boys team and from there to LA Fitness where I met Nick Bilich and Mike Calland who asked me to play in a tournament. Without that I never would have met all the volleyball players and coaches that helped us get hired by Pittsburgh Elite Volleyball Club. I might not have even stayed in Pittsburgh.
Mike also became one of my first real serious clients who gave me a lot of confidence in my own abilities as a trainer during a time where I didn’t really have a lot to show for my resume. And Nick’s dad, Rudy, now has also been a client for over 4 years and is one of my favorite drinking buddies. Nicole and I are always invited on Holiday’s to their group’s parties on holidays like we’re family.
Speaking of family…
Ed basically adopted me as a son when I first moved here. He used to bring me dinner twice/week for some reason (no complaints here). His daughters even invited me to his birthday parties that were only supposed to be his family. Most of you probably don’t know that Ed was also helping me look for a new building more than 5 years ago. I was so much smaller as a business then. Maybe he was the first one who realized we could build what we have now.
David and Daryl would probably have to be my most helpful cousins who won’t ever allow me to not accept their help. They helped us put up the gym at Locke’s, put our house together, and now our new gym. And their son Kevin is the closest thing I have to a little brother as I have watched him grow up and become better.
The Hanson’s… I think I got part of this out during my attempted speech. I met Brandon 8 years ago at the start of his senior year in high school. Now we’re doubles partners in volleyball and I'm the best man in his wedding. And Sandy is even more important than that. Sandy I'm pretty sure recruited 8 out of the first 14 kids who joined my summer strength and conditioning class. If that didn’t happen I wouldn’t have had that camp. I wouldn’t have even tried to expand the high school training at the crossfit location, which means I might have had to start looking for another job. Paige was a part of that group so she wouldn’t now be a friend or partially employed here. Not only Paige, but also Brandon, Jess, and Werner are still clients. Corey and Elliott moved away, but I still consider them clients. Plus their sisters Liz Carr and Jenna Kroboth also still train with us. And it took some time, but Sandy and Kyle both now finally train with us too.
For as long as I can remember my only goal was to build a facility that was different from others and could allow me to offer clients everything they could possibly need when it came to health and fitness or sport performance. I know we’re all about becoming better, but I wanted to build the best. I care a lot about the progress of my clients. More than some of you probably care about your own progress. However, I've realized lately that I didn’t build this for any of you. Selfishly, I built it for myself. I don’t know why exactly either. I knew that as we were finishing it was going to be good enough for the party. Good enough to show the space and the potential. Probably better than anything most of you imagined it would be. Definitely good enough for people to use and become better. Not good enough for me. And for that I apologize because it should be all about you and helping all of you become better. Luckily my selfish interests I believe will benefit all of you as well. We have great new equipment, a recovery room, a chiropractor (Ken Schenk) in our space, and food available to make sure you can recover and have the right fuel in your body for workouts. I have been gone a lot lately getting things ready and I am sorry for that too. I am ready and excited to come back to training full time which I believe will be the greatest benefit to everyone because it’s what I know I do best and why many of you joined and are still a part of our gym.
Lastly, I would like to personally thank a lot of you. I mostly failed to get a lot of this out last Saturday too, but it’s important for me to let everyone know who helped make this whole dream happen.
Mark of Shark Building did pretty much all of the remodeling. He stayed twice as long as originally planned. And he worked late into the night multiple times to make sure everything was completed. He organized extra help from other contractors as well when we were running low on time. If I would have met him earlier we would have been able to finish a lot sooner and save a ton of headaches on the whole organizing of this project. I strongly recommend any of you looking to get work done to contact him (412) 304-6224. He can do Drywall, bathroom remodeling/plumbing, ceilings, demolition, construction, or even managing an entire project that you have. He will also be upfront with you on the cost of materials and his own pay. Remodeling is never cheap, but what he charges for the quality of work is going to be way more reasonable than I would guess you could find anywhere else.
Bill the electrician. Fitzgerald Electric is his company actually, but Bill the electrician sounds better to me. Bill and his two employees changed out every single light in the place in addition to moving a fuse box to allow for us to put one of the showers in. He’s very easy to work with and I also recommend him to anyone looking for minor or major electrical work. Call/Text him at (412) 498-7124.
Todd at Junk Joey’s. Todd knocked out a bunch of walls to open our space up. He has also been by a half dozen times to keep giving us new dumpsters to get rid of all of our crap. 724-949-0301
Remnant City provided us with the beautiful floors. Lisa and her daughter Leanna Talarico run and own the small business that provides very affordable carpet and vinyl flooring. You will see Lisa around plenty at the gym in addition to her husband Ed of course. Talk to them here or call them 412-885-1444. We had Tim install the floor then and I'm sure you all noticed how perfect it looks. You can ask for him when you buy any floor through Remnant City or contact him separately: 412-352-3481
Nicole obviously gets the biggest thanks for having to deal with me through this remodeling project. I was very irritated and quick to snap through the stress of nearly everything going wrong the last few months. I was hardly home besides sleeping. Our weekends together were spent at the gym getting things done instead of out at a brewery or dinner. I never really asked her to even help. She just showed up whenever she could and wanted to help get it all done. The last 8 years we hardly even took a vacation more than a long weekend or going back to see my family because I didn’t want to take too much time off from the gym because I felt like I always needed to work to accomplish this goal. I don’t think most of you would have been OK with that.
Joey. Everyone knows how many hours Joey has worked the last 3 months because he’s been the only one training any of you. As I'm sure all of you would guess, he didn’t complain once. His dedication to the gym and to all of you becoming better allowed us to grow like we have. I could only take this business so far on my own. We would have stagnated long ago if we didn’t find Joey.
My parents are obviously to thank. They raised me. I don’t know what they did to make me into me, but they did. They lead through example by always caring and always trying, the two things I care about most. They gave me space to figure out my job when I first moved here. Offered help whenever they thought I needed it. They even stopped here for a day to help us paint the trim on the door frames when they were driving back from Florida a month ago. I hope I have been a similar role model to the kids that come in here.
Ashley and Lynda from Pittsburgh Elite Volleyball Club allowed me to become a part of their club which made me not care as much about adding in a volleyball aspect to this facility which was a huge reason why we hadn’t moved before. They also allowed me to come grab their squat racks for the opening party just so we could fill the space while we wait for our new ones to come in.
The professors and coaches I learned from in school and during my internship at the University of MN were invaluable in gaining enough knowledge to write programs and train people. My friends at grad school pushed me to become better because a lot of them were smarter than me and a lot of them worked harder than me. I had to keep up and that made me better.
My best friend from back home, Anthony, originally got my website running, has made modifications to our logo, gave us professional photos, and created nearly every flyer that we have ever had. Big thank you to him for his work that he did and continues to do for us.
Coach Allman of Bethel Park was the only coach to respond to my inquiries to work with volleyball teams in the South Hills. That is how I originally got started. We trained out of a crossfit gym called Crossfit South Hills which allowed us to very affordably keep our training with the high school kids alive until we remodeled the room at Locke’s. And of course a huge thank you to Sherry Locke. I worked out of there for 8 years. Our rent was probably way too cheap. This allowed us to save a lot of money to afford this new place. We likely caused Sherry a couple hundred headaches too. We ran a business that was a lot different than probably any other personal training business that had been in there before with our semi-private training options and the dropping of heavy weights. She could have asked us to leave years ago and never even hinted at wanting us to leave. Then she was super supportive when I told her we would be leaving and accommodated us during some uncertainties of when we would officially be out.
Thank you to all the clients who paid their year in advance. I thought that money would just be a backup, but it turns out we needed every last bit to make this happen. And thank you to the rest of you who have been around for longer than I can remember.
Then all the people that came to help us out to finish the facility. I originally was trying to not ask for help from any of you. I felt that you all pay us already and it was my job to use that money and my time to provide the new facility. Towards the end of remodeling I realized it was never going to get done. I think I sent out a half dozen text messages and people were here the next day helping. Jess Wooten first helped us clean the floors. Ed, Jorge, Brandon, Kerry, and Ken all helped us rip out the carpets. Jess and Emily came back to help with wallpapering and sanding. We had painting help from Sandy, Brandon, Jess, Kyle, Leanna, Brett, Jess, Daryl. David and Jorge helped with the baseboards. Nik came from out of state to visit and he ended up painting and putting equipment together. David put together the lat pull-down and a treadmill. Ed stopped in to put together another treadmill. The Hanson’s showed up every night to do anything they could. Jean came to clean up our mess and get us organized. Kerry, Jorge and Brandon helped move the large rubber mat floor in. The Friday night before the party Shay, Isaac, my Dad and sister, Ken and his family, and pretty much everyone I mentioned above came back in to get the final touches. Peggy let us use her discount code for cheaper and better paint. Anthony and his brother came to help along with a handful of their friends too. Kyle Hanson drove his truck out to Pitt Elite to get the squat racks to fill the space. Basically what I'm saying is that I never would have finished without all of you.
I moved to Pittsburgh on a whim. I didn’t know a single person. My training job didn’t work out. I worked at Walgreens for minimum wage to pay bills along with LA Fitness where I made about 15% of what the client paid. I stubbornly didn’t go back home to Wisconsin. I used the reasons I listed above for reasons to stay. And despite missing my family every day I’m so glad I stayed because I now have a new family here with all of you. This is my greatest accomplishment and everything I hope to achieve in the future will stem from this business and this community that we have. And I will be forever grateful to all of you for that.