We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Troy Graham. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Troy below.
Troy, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
Thank you for having me, it is truly a blessing to be featured by you all and I definitely cherish the opportunity. I would say my optimism derives from my parents. I come from a family where it is mandatory for every child to play a sport lol and I can remember that optimism starting initially in sports. My parents would teach me if you can do something once, you can definitely do it again. For example, if I can make three scores in a soccer practice, I can do it in a game. Then when I played American football, if I can tackle the biggest guy on our team, there is no reason I will not be able to tackle any opponent. This mentality just evolved from there, if I can get graduate high school with A/B honor roll, there is no reason why I can’t do it in college. Just taking small accomplishments and applying them to bigger pictures. It is funny now looking back at it now. My wife would call me her optimistic bunny and I also had some people who would call me “skittles” because everything is always sunshine and rainbows with me, I am always looking at the bright side no matter the situation. The gym could be going through a dry spell during the summer months in comparison to January but instead of dwelling on the amount of new clients, I would just focus on building the relationships with the people currently in house. More people will come based on how they see you treat your current clientele. These nicknames come from a mentality instilled into me early on by my parents. Take previous successes and apply them, in everything you do.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Well to give you a little bit of background on me, I am a personal trainer, and a new gym owner. I first got into personal training in 2015. I always say I fell into training because I was not planning to become one initially. After graduating from Jacksonville University in 2012, I was no longer playing college football. I had transitioned into working at Merrill Lynch full-time and the Jacksonville Jaguars part-time in the communications department. These two roles were not physical and did not incorporate anything athletic for me to do as up until this point, everything I did required being athletic. Knowing this, I figured I should get into fitness. I did a couple bodybuilding competitions in 2015 and people started asking for me to train them. Initially, I declined. I remember referring nearly 35 clients to other people at the time. Then after winning my natural pro card in 2016, the inquiries for training blew up even more. Then I knew I probably should give this personal training thing a serious try.. At first, I did not think I would enjoy it but then when I saw the lives I was changing. To name a few, I had a client named Danyell who couldn’t walk up the stairs after previous knee injuries. Over the course of training with me during a four-year span, she can squat over 200lbs now. A younger client had who was in high school, suffered depression and suicidal thoughts. He spent one summer training with me and regained confidence, started playing football and overall rekindled his love for life. Other instances I had were when five other clients wanted to lose weight to become pregnant and were successful in accomplishing it. In addition to these testimonies, others were when Chris and Jacob got in shape for the police force. Just seeing the impact, for a variety of different goals, really gave me a sense of purpose and inspiration.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Patience, Dedication and discipline. It takes time and patience to reach your goals. A large part of this time, can be trying to find what you like to do and what inspires you. Then you must dedicate your energy to setting goals based on the inspiration it provides. If the thing that inspires you involves creating a business, there is even more patience in setting mini stepping stones to build the business you desire. For me, I had to keep that goal in mind every day. The discipline to manage spending, budget, and sacrifice wants to ensure I have all my needs. I started my own business and plan to have my first personal training facility open here in Jacksonville, Florida within the next four to five weeks. It is a success, but I know i must continue learning. The patience, dedication and discipline will only become more important if I want to continue to be more successful.
How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?
I would spend the next decade with family. Just growing those relationships. I have not spend enough time with my parents and grandparents. After having my first child on July 3rd, and seeing the amount of love in creating the family, I really believe in family time. Now, I will try to open as many gyms as possible in the state of Florida during this time, but I will definitely spend more quality time with my loved ones.
Contact Info:
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Website: GymPartnerTraining.com
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Instagram: @iAmGains & @GymPartnerTraining
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Facebook: Gym Partner: Training
