03 | Leaving Your Fears Behind Through Entrepreneurship: Christian Evans | Success Fitness
Tags: podcast, productivity, career, news
Published: 2023-01-25 15:40:45

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**About**
Christian Evans from Success Fitness joins the podcast to tell us about losing over 180 pounds as a Cook and then transforming his mind, body, and soul as a Personal Trainer. We dabble in life as an entrepreneur and the hardships of life and how to refocus after traumatic events.

[Christian Evans Website](http://www.christiansweightsuccess.net)

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Alternate Titles For The Algorithm:
Career Change: From Cook to Personal Trainer and Entrepreneur
Losing Almost 200 Pounds and Becoming Healthy

**Show Notes**
0:18

Hey, my name is Elyse Y. Robinson and I am your podcast host with nobody wants to work though. And today I have you with Kristian Evans. He is our official first podcast guest. He runs a SAS fitness I've no Christian way, how many years have we known each other about

0:40

being over for over four or five, somewhere around there has been probably longer, probably longer.

0:45

And I find him to be so inspiring his whole story, I'll let you talk about it, but very, very inspiring. He puts in work, he puts in work and keeps me on my on my p's and q's. So yeah, just go ahead and introduce yourself. Who are you? And what are you about?

1:06

Okay, I am Christian Evans. I'm out of Peoria, Illinois. I am a personal trainer. And I guess the title of entrepreneur, I am somebody who was just, you know what, it just came naturally in regards to the request of people wanting me to help them I was a cook for about five or six years and a nursing home. During that time, I had gone from 405 pounds and lost a total of 187 pounds in 10 months. And from there, people were asking me to help them lose weight to try to duplicate what I did. And I was reluctant. And I was hesitant at first, but I ended up getting in and started helping people. And it kind of led to me exiting that job and going full time as a personal trainer. But during that time of me transitioning, I learned a lot, I learned a lot things weren't as smooth as I thought they would go. And there were some strange things I had to do for change. But I overcame that. And now I'm here I also run my own podcast called The Success fitness podcast. And from there, we just pretty much just talk also had at least on my podcast at the top of probably 2020 During the during the initial COVID lock downs in how COVID kind of affected her in you know, everybody's during during that time. But I run my first personal training hours one on one or Zoom trainings from my home gym, and I call that success, fitness. And you also work at a commercial gym at Gold's Gym. And the process of going from a cook to full time personal trainer wasn't easy, but I'm here now. So that's my story in a nutshell.

3:06

Yeah, I had the excuse me, I'm getting over nasty, nasty code. Um, so what was the thing that made you say, hey, I want to lose this weight, you know, because people go, you know, their whole lives until, like, literally the very end and, you know, they're, they're a certain size. Um, what was the catalyst? What made you say, Hey, I gotta change my ways.

3:35

Um, well, I had three deaths in about 556 year span. First, my mother passed away in Oh, eight of from complications of breast cancer. And then my cousin passed away, maybe about two years later, have a heart attack, I believe. And then my grandmother passed. But she she was she was my grandma was 70 years old for 10 years to me. And so I think she was probably about like, 80 something. But during but after that one, it was like, you know, three strikes, you're out. After that I just said just enough is enough. I just went into seclusion went to hiding. And just got to myself and found a found found, found a regimen found a regiment that worked for me, because I've always had certain type of regiment one way or another if I was working out. But one thing I didn't have fully was the diet. No, it was worked out one way or another. But the diet once I got that, and that clicked in every day, I will weigh myself and I will see positive results. So I just duplicate it, whatever I did the day before. And then there was day three, day four, day five, day six, day seven. And I just kept going on from there and it was just trying to duplicate what I did the day before. And within 10 months, that's when I dropped the one 187 pounds. And from there, things change, things change, things change from a standpoint of what I wanted to do in my life, and things in my story kind of going forward. You know, from there, I created and started my blog, Christian's weight success.net to just document down what I did. And some of the recipes that I use some of the workout regimens that I used, and just, you know, my backstory. So that is, you know, my story in regards to why and how I lost my weight.

5:36

Oh, gotcha. Yeah, I mean, I don't even know how we met in online,

5:41

it was probably on Twitter, because during that, during that time, I knew I came off of Facebook, because I was just over it. During my desk occlusion phase, when my grandmother passed, I was just over, I didn't want to see any family members, I didn't want to see any family members post or agers just anything like that. And I just went to Twitter. And so more than likely probably through a retweet, or hashtag or something one way or another, that's probably how we connected.

6:06

I have no idea but we always connect on health diet. And you know, if you don't know anything about me, I lost my mother at a young age to my mother was a leaf, like a couple of days before 57th birthday, from blood cancers. So, you know, we go back and forth on that all the time. And you know, we lost our mothers young. So we connected on that, for sure. Um, and outside of that, you know, I'm always asking for help tips and am I doing this right? Am I doing that? Right? So so yeah. All these things come at a cost? What did it cost you? Did you lose friendships? Did you know to have support or your family? Were you not able to go out and party anymore? What What did it cost you?

6:59

Um, what did it cost me, it cost me, it just cost me focus, it caused me focus from a standpoint of having to redirect what I was thinking about, I had to just invest time, how to in, in invest just in a relationship just with myself trying to find myself and actually discipline and to go to a place mentally that I had never been before from a standpoint of challenging myself. That's the thing to a point to where, when I was, you know, on my weight loss journey, is I had to challenge myself every day, let's see if I could do what I did. Yesterday, today, even though I don't feel like it today. I want to do something else. But the ability to stay consistent when I want to just do something else. Relationships, you know, come and go. Some, some relationships ended and some relationships started, you know, some relationships started and you started well, I started just to learn just that balance in life. And it's like, you know, what, if that person or those persons don't want to stick with me through that, that's fine. It was tough, but I couldn't stop what I was doing. And I started to realize whenever I'm trying to do something, is something good, something positive, that negativity will be around and that's just going to be a part of life right there.

8:25

There you go. The negativity is always going to be around preach.

8:33

For those that are thinking about becoming like a personal trainer, or something like that, or get into the wellness field, in general, what are some of the positives and negatives of your career,

8:44

the positives is that you can make your own schedule and the negatives is you can make your own schedule. So the same thing that can let make you laugh, make you cry, and going further into that is that we're all looking for freedom, some type of freedom one way or another. And you try to like occupy your time, but there will be slow, slow seasons and slow times. And you know, you may not be booked, you know, 9am 10am 11am you may have a 9am and then a 1pm and it's what do I do in between that time? What do I do in between, you know, the hours of, of 10 to one in my personal experience, I Uber and that was a tough part about when I left my cooking job and went into personal training full time as far as where I thought and I just thought that hey, you know what, I'm gonna have clients you know, left to right, you know, I have all these credentials. I have a website. People see my before and after pictures, this is going to be a piece of cake. And it was you know, it wasn't there were times to when I would have an eight o'clock client in Vienna wouldn't have anything till maybe four o'clock and I'd have to noon, and so they also have to get paid. So I Uber, or Uber, DoorDash, Instacart in between clients, and that was tough, because I wanted to do personal training, you know, full time. And that was the cost that I had to pay, you know, I had to work on getting my name out there, I had to work on my promotion, I had to work on establishing who I was, and having people trust in me having people believe in me. And that was challenging, but just sticking to that, you know, every single day, as I was in my car, just driving, I got to thinking, I'm like, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this, you know, there's risk on the road, you know, let alone just drive and you know, car accidents, you see crazy things and, you know, gas, you know, you got tires. Remember, I bought a new car. And literally when I pulled off the lot, a nail got into my tire, you know, I had to cover those costs, you know, right then and there. But I had to Uber that day, like literally got the car, sign the papers, and I turned my app on within like, the first hour, you know, and flat tire. But if I didn't have any clients, I wasn't getting paid. And so with that being said, you I had to become more creative, so I can occupy my time, so I can get a schedule so I can be able to provide for myself. So again, one of the you know, positive and negatives is is time, you know, being able to make your own schedule. So it's a, it's a gift and a curse at the same time in the ability to appreciate both sides of it, so you can respect in both sides of it. Another another positive thing, above all is your ability to help people is the ability to help somebody do something that they have never done before or they did not even believe that they could do. And I learned that still to this day, even some of my long term clients, they are, you know, message me about certain, you know, achievements that they've made, and they would not have made it, you know, without me and I don't, I don't like taking credit for it, because it's still them, but I guess I'm their guy in this fitness journey, you know of theirs, of helping them recover from an injury helping them benchpress 10 pounds higher than what they normally would or just be able to just finish a workout. My demographic a clientele is late 30s to about mid 50s, early 60s, somewhere around there. And these people are busy, they're professionals, and they don't really have time to just really spend two hours in the gym and just go full bore, like I did at one point in time. So you have to respect their time. And this may be their first time working out to a lot of times do and so you have to be gentle, you have to be careful, you have to be attentive and just that has taught me just in myself how to be patient with people. So that's a that's a good part that's that's a positive part I will say a negative a negative can be sometimes clientele to just at the same time to you can be ready for client and then you you cancelled you know fires for that day. Or you think somebody's going to renew for the for the month or whatever and then things change and just learning having learning how to not take that so personal because it may not be about you it may not be about you 100% of the time life happens you know the economy and people have children things happen they may have to pay for their kids flat tire you know, I mean and the money that they had for personal training now has to go into their to their kid or whatever but you just have to be the Agile you have to be agile be able to stop on a dime and then turn and go the other direction you know without without having to get too emotionally involved. It challenging is tough, but you know you'll get over it.

14:04

Yeah

14:07

it's more so life as a entrepreneur to um because yeah, me a Christian go back and forth on or our business stuff all the time. About Yeah, you know, this, this and this. But as we say there are no feelings in business keep you out of it. How did you balance your, you know, staying in your old career and then trying to transition to your new career? Did you quit it? Or do you just wake up one day and quit? So I'm gonna go all in, like, what was the process on that?

14:45

The process was, I believe is 2017. It was about February. And my brother called me over he said, I got a way that we can make some money. I'm like, alright, you know, what's that mean? He was like Uber and I'm like, What's that? And he explained to me what It was and I've always been the guinea pig between us too. And he'll say, go do this. And I'm like, alright, I'll go do it, first I go test the waters out, and then we can both, you know, go go from there. But what I found I made just as much, if not more money driving about 20 hours a week, probably about four nights, probably about four hours, four hours a night, about four or five days a week that I was making working. What was that? About 20 hours, 20 No, 40 hours, actually 40 hours, during my my day job. And once I started doing the math, and I'm like, if I can get this amount of money by just driving Uber, and then combine that with personal training rates at the time for the area, then I can make it, you know, I felt I could make it I felt I could make it you know, during that time. And so probably about April, that following April, because, you know, it's February and then march and then April, I was like, I'm gonna go all in, I'm gonna go all in because, you know, this job is cool, I love to cook, I've always I've always loved to cook cooking is easy, to me is just time and temperature. They have been capped off, and rightfully so, you know, it's a job, you know, job, they do balance and budget sheets, top of the, you know, top of the year or six months, six to eight months prior, you know, the year before and irregardless of how much effort that you put in how much of a good job you do, you you are just kept, you are just kept. And that's just business. And that's just business. So me understanding that I made a choice to just leave, you know, I wasn't really for sure when I was, but I knew I was towards about the top of May I put my two weeks and I put my two weeks in, and I'll let people know I'm, I'm going all in with this personal training. And probably about five days into my 10 day 10 day notice my my aunt had passed, my honor passed and she was a real, she was like the catalyst to a lot of what I'm doing right now. And she was my shoulder to cry on my mother passed. And pretty much my, my, my sage, you know, my guide my guide and life after my mother passed, and when she passed, and I just literally just walked out that that day, from my job. I was like, You know what, this is it, I can't I can't do this anymore. And that was how that came out, came about as far as like, you know, cooking. After I left, it was it just it wasn't the same. But I was trying to leave that life behind. It didn't take any other jobs. It was just personal training and Uber. And that was tough. I did more Uber and then personal training that summer, you know, during that summer, so from from from May, until about August, that's all I did was was Uber, Uber, Uber, Uber personal training here and there. And then things start to change probably about like that, that September where I start to do a little bit more more training than then Uber.

18:19

I gotcha. I guess my next question is more so entrepreneurship question. What emotions went into the jump of that? Did you lose benefits because, you know, a lot of reasons why people stay at jobs is because of the benefits. They don't want to lose health insurance and dental vision and, you know, the 401k package like, you know, what, what decision went into that to go into, you know, full time of being entrepreneur and giving giving that up.

18:55

The emotion was the security, the financial security, you jumping into the unknown of it wasn't guaranteed that, you know, I was going to make what, you know, I was making back in February, in in May for Uber. And that was another tough thing I realized. Excuse me, the guaranteed paycheck, I've every week of having this amount of money deposited into my account. That wasn't, it was just all out. So everything was all on me. So far as emotion it was. I think I would be lying if I said I wasn't fearful, but I didn't. I think the fear drove me. I think the fear drove me because it's like, I gotta make it work. I got to make it work. I got to make it work. And so the fear was kind of more emotion. And I think that I gotta make it from being in fear was from when my mother passed. You know, my mother passed everything was a lot and put it like that. A lot was on me a lot was on me to figure out what to do, from, from that point on, you know, fires, bills, what to do with the house, just things like that, and I kind of work best under pressure, if I'm putting a corner, I will find my way out whether I got to fight or whether I got to do some type of kung fu move, or whatever the case may be, I'm gonna find my way out. And I don't necessarily like to be in that position, but it seems like I get a little bit more focused. So that was that time of my life, you know, once I left there, so I gotta make it work. You know, I can't be can't be relaxed, you know what a job. It's like, okay, I'm gonna work, you know, get paid for eight and a half, nine hours only work maybe for whatever you understand that system, you unless you understand the system of coming and going, what to do, what not to do, in the security that can come with that. But once I left, all that was gone. It was on me, I had to make it work, I had to make it work. I saw other people do it. So I cannot, you know, that was more of my mentality. So that fear really, really drove and push my confidence, it drove me to speak up more. My grandma told me that closed mouth doesn't get fit. So my, my shyness at times, I had to get rid of that. You know, I had to ask people, Hey, you wants personal training? Or, you know, what's your, what's your goals for the year, just different things that I was uncomfortable with? So every emotion that kind of comes with like fear, I had to find the the the, the opposite of it and do it quickly. If not, then that meter mean that one, I was not making any money or two, I will have to Uber more to make money so I can make sure my bills were paid. So just what would that being say at fear? Fear was was was a driving force for me.

21:58

Yeah, one of the things that I described myself as fearless because like you said, after, after my mother passed away, it was like, Be scared away. There's nothing to be scared of. And when your mother passes so young, it's like, you're at a point where you you have to do everything because you you don't know when your last day is either. And so if you don't know anything, that catalyst for me was moving to Mexico and learning Spanish and everything like that. So that's another reason why me and Christian connect it because it's like, fear fear of what? Yeah, no, you can't be scared anymore. You have to go out there and basically take life by the horns. And, you know, like, they say, manifest destiny. And you know, you're the only person on this earth that can drive drive your life, no one else can can do that to an extent. And so, yeah, fearless is definitely one of the words that I will describe myself as always. And what would be some traits that would make someone successful in this career, like you said, you can't close mouths don't get fed, you can't be scared. So

23:13

I'm definitely closed mouth does not do not get scared. Well, calls mouth doesn't get fed. Don't be afraid of fear, either. You know, fear can make people just stop. But also fear can put you in a whole different phase of yourself or a whole different mentality of yourself that you didn't even know. You could, you could you could persevere through, you know, it's kind of like I remember one time, me and my brother were out selling CDs, right? We were out, you know, selling CDs, hand to hand on the streets. And I remember I went up this hill, and I was getting ready to make the sale to this lady. And this dog just came out of nowhere, literally. And it was like, slow motion. It was slow motion. This dog was coming on to the right. And my heart was just beating real fast. And I just looked at the dog and had like, literally to stop. And I was scared. Don't get me wrong. I was scared. And then I freeze. I froze. But it was like, what else can I do at that time? And I was preparing myself for okay, if this dog bites you, this is what you need to do. So just in that moment about fear. It can challenge you it can challenge you to react, it can challenge you to stay still. And that's when you have to like a note in that neck. Quick moment. You have to decide what's the best move for you. And Hindsight is 2020. Then you look back and you're like, Okay, I could have did this. I could have did this. I should have did that. And when I look back at that situation every single time I believe what I did was right because if I were to react it to that dog, then I probably would have got bitten You know, so you, that's one trait that you have to have is just, you have to be, you have to be sure of yourself. But even if you are not, that shouldn't stop you. And you know, sometimes we can overanalyze things, you know, they call analysis paralysis, where we just overanalyzing everything we don't move, I was just watching a YouTube short about that I probably about an hour ago, he's talking about kind of just dumbing down something, sometimes you have to just not be attached so much to the to the end result all the time, and be able to listen, be able to listen, and you have to be able to listen. So the whole thing about communication, it goes both ways. You can't just always want to talk, you have to be open to somebody talking to you, you have to always be open to receiving additional information, additional perspectives. So just be an open minded, you know, that's one. And lastly, I would say, consistent, you have to be consistent, irregardless of the outcome, you know, be consistent. You know, a lot of times we're so attached to the end result, we're so attached to the analytics that if they don't say or do what we want them to, then we completely stop. And I've done that so many times. And I realized in those times, those were the worst times for me to stop. And sometimes it just doing it, and you just just get your reps up, just like well working out, it's okay, I don't, I don't feel like I'm doing this, right. And you you do, you do take time out to make adjustments, but you just keep trying, you just keep trying, because maybe you just don't get it in that first rep, maybe don't get it in that second rep. That's why personally going to work it out. I like doing high reps, say 15 to 20. Because sometimes I may not get reps, right as far as my form by the sixth or seven threats. But by the 10th. Our perspective, you know, less than perfect. And then I can just write out from there on out. So you have to learn how to just be consistent, you know, inspired?

27:03

Do you think that you should have done this career, let's say I mean, I know your age, but let's say, you know, 1015 years ago? Or do you think when you did it, it was the right time in your life?

27:18

I believe. I believe I did it at the time that you know what, when it came to me, you know, I That's my honest belief. Now, are there some things I could have tightened up on during the time when the idea came to me and I was executing? Yeah, of course. And I think that's part of being an entrepreneur to where you look back, like, I could have did this, I should have did that. But I had no knowledge or no desire, I had no desire, let's say to be a personal trainer, you know, five years, prior five years prior to when I did become one I wasn't interested, I wasn't interested at all never came across my mind as to being one even when I would go to the gym with my cousins or lift weights with my brother, it was just for me, it was just for my experience, just chilling out with my family, and just getting stronger. And it had nothing to do with me teaching I didn't know how to teach. I didn't know what the purpose was. So just with that being said, you know, it's you can't you can't can't really question you know, God's timing, you know, you can question it from the standpoint of what is it? You know, but it's like, Is it is it right or wrong irregardless is is the lesson in that time, you know, so the lesson you know, in that in that time to when you know, I became let's say entrepreneur or full time personal trainer was me paying attention, paying attention to signs paying attention to what's going on and just making sure that I'm making the right move just make sure you make the right move and even if it's not the right move, what do you learn from that mistake?

28:57

No

28:57

console Greek as I was just telling my other friend earlier that you know, I never thought about teaching or you know, doing seminars, having a school or doing a podcast hell literally living in another country speaking Spanish I could have been a auditor my whole life working for the federal government. My parents were government workers. So I could have totally did that my whole life I've been totally content doing. And then you know, life life happens. And, you know, it got shook up and all these crazy ideas started coming. So man life is so funny.

29:36

Right, right, right, right. Right. Right. Right.

29:39

Last question. Oops, excuse me. Yeah, I'm, I'm really not trying to be be gross over here. What tips and tricks would you give someone that wanted to be in this career? What were what are some things that you that you wish you knew, before you started being a pro? Personal Trainer and you know, what advice would you give someone wanted to get into this this career field

30:10

invest, be prepared to invest financial, be prepared to invest financially, that is one thing that I thought I could get by on or get by without meaning like, oh, I don't have to pay for this, I don't have to pay for that. And that's not saying that you should have to pay for everything that somebody puts a price tag on. But to think that you can get over the bridge without paying the troll, you know, he's going, if you're going to have a tough time, you're going to have a tough time. And that is one thing that I wish I would have subscribed to mentally, at the top of knowing that you got to pay for this, you got to pay for that. Because it's going to either make your life easier, or that's just the industry norm. Being that we're on social media, things can look a certain way, but they're not. And once you get once you get down to the guts of something, you see how it works. I used to take away not take aways to take apart phones, when I was younger, just I was always just always trying to take apart stuff, just to sorry, I tried to see how it works. And I remember one time, our phone or landline, our phone, it broke, and I didn't want to pay for another one. This was I was probably maybe eighth grade freshman year in high school, and I didn't know anything about phones, I don't think Google was you know, as accessible back then if even out and back then so there had to be 9697 Somewhere around there. But I took the phone apart and took the phone apart and saw that some wires were loose and that's why I didn't get any connections to it. And that's kind of a testament to how things are right now you have to see how things work you have to see how things work get down to the nitty gritty of it versus just saying oh, I'm opposed to this and you know is going to get shared or people are going to like it or whatever that is true and that can be true but there's always much more there's always much more to it there's always much more to it so be prepared to invest in an invest fires you know financially so have your money saved have your have your money saved up have a way to make some money so you can take that money then invest and then invest into your idea and invest into what it is that you are doing or or want to do. Because it's important because you're going to get to a certain place that where you're like I need to make the logistics of what I do and how I do it better and that is going to take money whether it's you know hiring somebody to do your social media work or do your editing or whatever, it's going to take money it is going to take money so if anything to get away or to take away from from this or to answer the question is financially in this be prepared to financially invest.

33:14

Yeah, me a Christian, talk about it all the time, scare money don't make money. And you know, you you see those stories of people on there like last $10 and they put $9 into something and it just clicked so don't don't be scared to invest. I have to agree with that as as a fellow entrepreneur and outside of that, even if you're not an entrepreneur, and you know, let's say you have a professional career, one thing that I have is an insurance license and so one thing you have to do every two years is continuing education and so that cost I have to renew my license and things like that so um you know that is investing in myself and keeping me abreast of new ideas and new things. So yeah, you know, if the course is $500 and it's gonna make you $10,000 Don't be scared to do it go ahead and do it as long as it's not going to you know, compromise paying your rent or something like that. But But yeah, scared money don't make money and you definitely have to invest in yourself or your business or whatever you're trying to do. With all that said, thank you, Christian for coming to the nobody wants to work podcast. Sorry, guys. Like I said, I got a cold so there's that and anything else you want to say, Christian? Before we go.

34:49

Well, thank you for having me. Thank you for for me being the first guest on

34:56

your podcast practice

34:59

that means a lot that means a lot if if any of your your your listeners want to connect with me make it short and simple you just reach me on my blog Christians weight success.net That'll lead you to so all my socials that'll lead you to you know my podcast and if you're wanting to have some some some some zoom workouts that actually do actually do zoom workouts and also some you can download a free workout ebook and also create in right workout ebooks based off of the equipment that you have and yeah so Christians weight success.net

35:37

All right you heard it from him Christians waste assess dot next and again I am Elyse Y. Robinson with nobody wants to work podcast or nobody wants to work on podcasts. Gosh, I don't know the name my old podcast and let's let's close it out