Fitness entrepreneur, video director and a marketer in one person Elvis, shares his experience on how he made it happen in a new, completely unfamiliar environment, and what steps he took from being an underpaid personal trainer depending only on selling his time for money to finally scaling his passion big, by developing a scalable personal training platform, creating videos and managing content for himself and for some of the biggest names in the fitness industry.
So how did it all start? How did you find your path? Tell us all about it!
Well, to be honest, I spent a lot of years after my highschool graduation being lost. I was trying to find myself, sometimes even following other people’s actions and interests of what I saw was cool on social media, but it never felt okay with me, it never matched my true self & I felt I had my own way of doing things.
So I just tried to live each day by doing things that I love unconditionally – going to the gym and making cool little videos for my small instagram page at that time. My mindset till this moment was that the most important task of the day is deep work on myself, at least a couple of hours a day, minimal to no distractions when doing it. If I trained hard that day, the day was successful in my books.
I found my path eventually by just simply sticking and doing it consistently. The time spent perfecting my craft is gradually paying off every day, I feel blessed for not giving up!
So, the main thing you do these days – personal training, right?
Yes, but now partly. Personal training is what I love and have done face to face with clients for a long time, but not long ago I came to the conclusion that to get to the next level, I have to change my strategy on how to provide value with my knowledge.
So, I started to create fitness education videos on TikTok, the same style I would do in a gym with a client, using simple and straight-forward communication to not leave people confused.
After few posts it got the ball rolling. From one person listening to me, suddenly I got thousands and thousands of people hearing and learning on my platform. It really felt and still feels surreal that I can help people even being far away from the majority of them.
So, the next step I took was scaling it even further by developing my own fitness app where I can help people with a more “hands on” approach on their specific fitness goal of getting in shape.
This gave me the freedom I craved by maintaining and providing still a good service to the people I work with, without being in just only one place at the time. This also gave me a bit more free time to do my other hobbies, which later on turned out to be a big turning point of my career as well… video directing/creation.
Interesting. So, how exactly video directing was the thing that elevated you further into the business space?
Thank you for the question! So yes, since I was a kid, I loved playing with “Action man” dolls (*Elvis laughs), and not with toy cars or kitchen utensils like the other kids.. I liked to play and create scenarios. There were literally movies playing in my head, I remember.
And only in my early twenties I realised that, that we are made to do what we loved to do when we were kids, you don’t need to be searching for outside approval to find your passion. Just do more of what you love to do, spending hours and hours and not even noticing the time flying by.
So fast forward a couple of years – I started to direct and film my own personal videos, from which, eventually, I got many good reviews. Then I even tried to direct a music video for the first time, it was for my brother who is a hip-hop artist by the way, and the same happened – we got so many good reviews from critics even though we had little than no budget at the time.
From that I realised, I was made for creating, I see movies in my head. And this decision later on, attracted those big clients/collaborations.
How did you land your first big client in the fitness industry content world?
So, in spring of 2021 I moved to Dubai with my friends, we didn’t have any contacts or job opportunities here, and at that time I was mainly doing videos for myself and friends, also was doing personal online training 1vs1 and through my app, which if I mentioned before.
So my first big collaboration I attracted was precisely after my first month living here in Dubai. It was actually a combination of luck and preparation. So basically, the client/collaborator was searching for someone to assist him with his social media content (youtube, instagram, tiktok), so me and my friend/roommate Chris (who is a videographer), had of course some experience in the field, so we spammed all our friends to send this guy a genuine message to check us out (*laughs), till eventually we were noticed. He really liked the stuff we were doing… we had a successful meeting and the rest is history.
The guy I’m talking about has 1 million subscribers on his youtube and instagram. He was also actually one of my biggest idols since when I started training, so how it all happened, again – luck, massive belief and preparedness cocktail.
What inspires you daily to be fired up in your business?
Gratitude. Simply as that. I would go on my daily walk listening to some good house or rap music and saying thanks for all the blessings, health and opportunities I have. That fires me up to build my life even more. The fire is burning strong when you are grateful for what you have in your hands, believe me.
Whats next for you?
I will keep on building, I also feel like my superpower is that I can inspire people around me, so I want to keep fueling that fire and push people forward, because that every time comes back and skyrockets me forward even more.
If we are talking about the professional side of business, I am planning to expand, create and set up a sustainable business, where I teach my people to do it, so we can scale it even more. As well I am planning to keep on building my personal training brand and my presence on social media. We are just starting.
Your biggest advice for anyone who just found their passion or is still looking?
I love this. Remember – you have an opportunity to start whenever you want, every day is a new beginning. When you wake up, say to yourself – “you are great, worthy and you deserve it all”, eventually this positive mindset will build a momentum in your life and attract the right opportunities.
About how to find your passion specifically, try my method – look deep into the past, and ask yourself, what do you wanted to be or do all day when you were a kid.
If you still don’t have an answer, you just have to try and taste more things in life and don’t be afraid of failing or not liking it at first , because believe me, regret of not trying it, will hurt deeper than any failed thing you’ve ever tried.
So believe, dream and prepare for your best life, It’s just around the corner!