CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER Q& A: Daniel Stein

Cada mes, centraremos la atención en un Entrenador personal certificado por Sportstraining-Weightloss que está marcando una diferencia en su comunidad.

Para agosto, hablamos con Daniel Stein, Sportstraining-Weightloss-CPT y fundador de Especial Fuerte, una empresa que ayuda a niños y adultos con necesidades especiales a encontrar esperanza a través del fitness.

Academia Nacional de Medicina Deportiva (Sportstraining-Weightloss): Empecemos contándonos sobre ti.

Daniel Stein (DS): My name is Daniel Stein. I was born in Florida and moved to Texas when I was a year old, and I’ve lived in Texas ever since. I have two younger brothers, Andrew and Matthew.

When I was four years old, I was diagnosed with ADHD and started being treated with medication. While the medication helped, I continued to struggle throughout school with behavior challenges and needed special accommodations to complete my assignments.

I got made fun of from other students for being “different” and so I didn’t have many friends or fit into any specific groups. Having ADHD also meant that I struggled with hyperactivity, so from an early age, my parents knew that I needed an outlet. My parents got me started in different sports programs and noticed a clear difference in my behavior and moods when I was active.

Sportstraining-Weightloss: ¿Cuándo empezaron tus padres a invertir en tu ejercicio?

DS: To help during the summer and when sports weren’t taking place, they got me a membership at the YMCA, where I would bike two miles one way to get to the gym to exercise at the age of 13. My parents saw how much I enjoyed exercise and how much it was helping me, so a few years later they decided to buy me some equipment for the garage, consisting of adjustable dumbbells, an adjustable bench, and a 15 lb. barbell with a rack. I would consistently work out every single day, sometimes both at the YMCA and in my garage in one day.

As I started to become more self-aware, I noticed how much it was helping me in my own life with my moods, focus, and anxiety. I was drawn to exercise because of how much it helped me. When I graduated high school and had a lot of free time on my hands, it started to become a part-time hobby for me, where I would read fitness books, magazines, and articles to enhance my workout experience and adapt fitness for my needs.

Sportstraining-Weightloss: ¿Cuándo decidió tomarse el fitness en serio y certificarse como entrenador? ¿Y por qué eligió Sportstraining-Weightloss?

DS: As I was learning more and more about fitness, I knew that I wanted to do something related to fitness for the rest of my life. The truth was I didn’t think I would ever be able to do anything with it because of challenges with ADHD. I ended up working in retail for many years and eventually landed a job in banking.

During my career as a banker, I was being mentored by Rob Moore from my church. On November 11 of 2011, Rob and I met at Starbucks. Rob sat down with me and shared with me a vision he had for my life that consisted of me becoming a personal trainer to work with the special needs population.

Por primera vez en mi vida, sentí que tenía la oportunidad de perseguir mis sueños porque alguien creía en mí. Inmediatamente busqué el entrenamiento personal, investigué muchísimo y finalmente me certifiqué a través de Sportstraining-Weightloss debido a su reputación y alta tasa de éxito. Mientras trabajaba a tiempo completo en el banco, conseguí un trabajo a tiempo parcial en un gimnasio local para ganar experiencia.

Un día en el banco, dos personas entraron para abrir una cuenta comercial sin fines de lucro para hacer ejercicios adaptados para necesidades especiales, y yo era el único banquero disponible para ayudarlos en ese momento. Mientras nos sentamos, les compartí la visión que tuvo Rob el 11/11/11 y decidieron que querían asociarse conmigo. Como resultado, me pagaron para trabajar con Dakota, mi primer cliente con necesidades especiales que quedó parapléjico por un incidente de sobredosis de drogas. Cobré vida cuando trabajaba con Dakota y sabía que tenía que ayudar a otros como él.

Rápidamente me di cuenta de que no había gimnasios para necesidades especiales para personas como Dakota, y estaba agobiado por hacer algo al respecto, pero no sabía por dónde empezar. Decidí que era hora de un cambio de carrera en salud y fitness, así que dejé la banca a tiempo completo para dirigirme a un centro de adelgazamiento.

Three months later, the center shut down and I was left jobless. I had recently gotten married, so my wife and I ended up moving in with her parents in a very small town of a population of 3,000 to give me time to find a job and save money. After moving in with them, I learned that there was a small mom and pop gym down the road. I met the owner and he told me I could do personal training there, but I had to generate all my own clients. Starting with the “A” s, I called every single member of the club until there was no one else to call. Within 3 months, I was training 30 hours a week.

A year later, we ended moving out of her parent’s house and getting our own home in McKinney. I decided to go into corporate fitness and got a job at Lifetime Fitness. I also kept a few select clients who followed me to another nearby gym where I was able to train privately. One of the clients who followed me was Michelle. Michelle saw how hard I worked and she knew my dreams, and she said I needed to meet her husband, Josh. Josh decided to invest his time into me and help me develop a business plan for my business working with special needs. He even came up with the company name, Special Strong. I continued working full-time at Lifetime Fitness, managing part-time private clientele, and developing Special Strong on the side with Josh.

After one year with Lifetime, I became at top 5% trainer (out of 3,700 trainers) and they decided to put me through their leadership program. Towards the end of the leadership program, I was faced with a difficult choice: grow and climb the corporate ladder at Lifetime Fitness or leave and launch Special Strong.

After much prayer, I decided to leave Lifetime and launch Special Strong. After leaving Lifetime, all I had was a few private clients, my wife’s small salary, a home, and two cars to pay for. I ended up going public with Special Strong, not knowing what was going to happen. I would continue to go to Josh for advice on marketing and business-related questions and I did everything he said.

Within one year, we had a waiting list for our services across several cities in North Texas. We ended up partnering with other small gyms that allowed us to pay rent in exchange for the use of their facility. We became experts on digital marketing and SEO, which has helped people find out about our local services and our online special needs certification all over the world.

Sportstraining-Weightloss: Parece que todos los días para ti deben ser una experiencia gratificante. ¿Puede contarnos una de sus mayores historias de éxito con respecto a uno de sus clientes?

DS: Tenemos cientos de historias de éxito en nuestro programa. Una de nuestras mayores historias de éxito es la de Josh, a quien le diagnosticaron síndrome de Down. Cuando Josh comenzó con nosotros, tenía sobrepeso, tenía poco tono muscular y estaba extremadamente deprimido. Tuvo que darse de baja de la terapia a caballo porque su núcleo y su resistencia estaban retrocediendo mucho.

After one year into our program, Josh was able to independently ride horses for the first time in his life. At the age of 28, he got his first job due to the independence he gained from our program. He lost about 20 lbs. and gained lean muscle. My words can’t do his story any justice – watch the video de dos minutos de Josh y su mamá compartiendo su historia.

Sportstraining-Weightloss: Cuéntenos más sobre los campamentos de entrenamiento corporativos de Special Strong.

DS: We used adapted fitness in our Special Strong boot camps to serve other service providers in North Texas. Our company has numerous contracts with therapy centers that hire us to come out weekly or monthly to provide our services to their clients in a group setting. Typically, a group consists of 10-15 individuals that we put through five unique stations. We teach about these five stations and how others can start their own group classes through our online special needs certification program at www.certifystrong.com.

Sportstraining-Weightloss: Al leer su sitio web, dice que tiene una lista de espera. ¿Sigue siendo cierto? ¿Cuántos empleados tiene actualmente?

DS: There is a huge need for our services. The sad reality is that there are no special needs gyms where individuals can go to for adapt fitness training. We have a waiting list for 13 cities in Texas and have had people ask about us in at least 10 others states. One of our greatest challenges is finding high caliber certified personal trainers. We currently have eight certified personal trainers. In 2019, we launch our special needs certification so that other trainers and service providers can help meet this need.

Sportstraining-Weightloss: ¿Cuál es tu objetivo final para Special Strong?

DS: My ultimate goal is to go global. There’s a huge lack of resources available for special needs adapted fitness. Our model is virtual and has very little overhead, so our expansion is primarily limited by finding quality trainers. At some point, we may open a special needs gym that offers adapted fitness and equipment for special needs.

Sportstraining-Weightloss: Obviamente, ha encontrado el éxito a través del trabajo duro y el descubrimiento de un nicho de mercado sin explotar. ¿Tiene algunas palabras de sabiduría para los entrenadores que recién están comenzando?

DS: Mi consejo para los entrenadores que recién comienzan es que averigüen el "por qué" y lo escriban. Si eres como yo y tienes que tomarte un año sabático de 48 horas para despejar tu mente, haz lo que sea necesario. Recomiendo un libro de Simon Sinek llamado "Comience con por qué. "Es cierto que he tenido mucho éxito, pero hubo muchas veces que quise renunciar y dejar la industria por varias razones. Lo único que me mantuvo en el juego fue mi por qué. En caso de que te preguntaras qué Mi por qué es que viene de un versículo de las Escrituras que dice: "Vine para que tengan vida y para que la tengan en abundancia".

Cuando quería dejar de fumar, me recordaba a mí mismo que fui llamado para ayudar a otros a experimentar una vida abundante usando el fitness como herramienta. Cuando encontré el éxito, mi por qué me salvó de convertirme en una persona impulsada por las ganancias y seguir impulsada por las personas. Se trata de tu por qué.

Todos nosotros en Sportstraining-Weightloss deseamos que Daniel continúe teniendo éxito con Special Strong, y esperamos que siga mejorando vidas a través del fitness. ¡Gracias por responder a nuestras preguntas, Daniel!

Puede obtener más información sobre Daniel y Special Strong en specialtrong.com.

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