Meet Aaron Culver

We were lucky to catch up with Aaron Culver recently and have shared our conversation below.

Aaron, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

I develop my confidence and self-esteem primarily from knowing that my identity is in Jesus Christ. I know that if what I have set out to do is ordained by God, it will be worth all of the trials and tribulations that come with taking the risk of a business start up. Apart from that, I try to keep myself humble by getting advice and input from family, friends and mentors. Accepting that I do not know everything allows me to learn more, which in turn, builds up my confidence.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I set out to run my own business because I wanted to run a business with integrity. I had been in the pest control industry for over 10 years. The company that I spent the vast majority of my career with had begun putting quality and customer service on the back burner for the sake of “getting to the next level”. If you would have asked me 5 years ago if i had any aspirations to be a business owner, I would have told you “Heck no. I enjoy my down time too much.” But I love working out very much, so i decided to get certified as a personal trainer. At first, it was just to bring in some side money apart from pest control. Then the pest company I was employed by started making the changes that I was not on board with. Then my wife and I began discussing trying to take the personal training full time eventually. I left that pest company in April of this year (2024) and went to go work for another company that would free up more of my time and allow me to work on CPT more. About 3 weeks into working for the new pest company, the owner announced he had sold the company to an even larger one. At that time, my wife and I felt as if that was God’s sign that it was time for us to finally take the plunge to take the personal training full time. So I gave that company my notice, and about 2 weeks later we took our 2 children out of daycare the day after my last day working for that pest company in particular. Now I was not just a business owner, but also a full time personal trainer and a stay-at-home dad. My goal in all of this is first and foremost to bring glory to Jesus Christ. Second to that, I want to help people get healthier and live more fully with their new found health and strength. There are a lot of false ideas out there about what it looks like to eat healthy and to exercise correctly, so I want to help dispel those myths. I also want to show people that you can exercise and eat healthy on a tight budget.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

My 3 best skills or qualities that have been impactful for me are humility, compassion and the desire to learn. I am by no means perfect in any of these areas. There is a saying that I think goes something like “You know how someone is not humble? If that person says they are humble.” Humility is something that I have become better at in recent times. I also definitely have a lot of moments where my pride is spewing over, which my wife can attest to. But I have been forced to become more humble in order to take constructive criticism and advice. I want to make as few mistakes as possible in this venture, even though I am well aware that mistakes are inevitable. But if I can get good input from those that I love and trust, I want to take that input and use it to my gain. Compassion is crucial for what I do. I cannot look at someone that is severely overweight and make assumptions about that person. More than likely there are deep rooted issues that play a role in that person being overweight. So when someone comes to me, asking for help, I must be compassionate and accept that person where they are in that point in time. Also, people make mistakes. No one is going to go about their fitness journey perfectly, so I have to have compassion for that. Lord knows I have made a lot of mistakes in my life. I have hurt many people. I have been downright wicked at some points in my life. But, people that I have hurt have forgiven me, and more importantly, Christ has forgiven me. Since Christ has forgiven me, I have to forgive other people when they make mistakes. I must have the same compassion that Christ has. I have such a desire to learn more about exercise, food and the human body. Some times I really start thinking that I am “the man”, but then I hear a trainer or coach talk on a podcast, whom has knowledge vastly beyond mine, and I am forced to be humbled again and accept that I have a lot more to learn. Learning is a never ending process. Wise elderly people will be the first to admit that they still have much to learn.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

My wife has by far been the most helpful person in this adventure. She is the one that helped solidify that it was time for us to take this leap of faith and for me to do what I love doing, but get paid for it. Mary is an incredibly intelligent person, much smarter than me. She knows so much about a lot of the stuff that goes along with running a business, and she has been so patient in helping me along the way in learning all the stuff that I do not know. I started this with what I do know, which is how to help people get healthier and stronger. Mary has been the one to do so much of the logistics, while being patient in me learning it as well. Just in the short amount of time that we have been at this, I have had so many doubts. I have thought that I am a failure. I have been ashamed that I left a very comfortable job. I have sat in our living room and wept while our children were in there with me. I have felt like I do not know what to do next. Every time that I finally have the humility to talk about what I’m feeling, she always has just the right words to build up my confidence even more. Maybe I could do this without her, but it is no doubt that it would be tremendously more difficult.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://culverpt.mypthub.net/
• Instagram: @culver_pt
• Facebook: @culverpt
• Youtube: @culverpt

Image Credits

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