My Big Decision

January 3, 2012 By Jonathan

My decision I made a decision today. A big decision. One that involves me taking significant financial and professional risk. It’s a decision where I carefully weighed the pros and cons. I considered everything but have no way of predicting the future.

Well one way…

I’m confident in myself and I know what I bring to the table. Doubt shrouds my thoughts but it always has and always will. I lie to myself every day to make the doubt go away. I thought back to the first months of the Personal Trainer Development Center where I lied to my own mother about the stats. No more than 20 people were viewing the page each day and 10 of the views were by me. I lied to everybody else to hide the truth from myself. That was my remedy.

I started the site on a hunch. Something told me I had to do it so I did. I wanted to give up countless times. When things got bad a sign appeared to keep going. The sign came in the form of an email from a trainer saying thank you, a spike in views, or a random email from a coach telling me he was interested in signing up.

I remember…

Adam Bogar telling me he could get me in touch with Mark Young. I was flabbergasted. Mark’s brilliant, passionate and well-known. My hands shook as I called him. I had never spoken to a famous coach before. I meticulously studied his site and had pages written about his work in an attempt to make friends. I’ve never told anybody that if Mark said no I would have shut down the site. Not much had gone well leading up to that point and I was packing my bags — ready to go back into my sheltered and safe bubble where nobody would ever see or care about me. He agreed, it was a sign.

Next up was Michael Torres. On a whim I sent him a message on Facebook asking if he was interested in chatting. A long phone conversation and visit to New York had him on board.

Then he dropped a bomb…

Would I consider bringing Bill Sonnemaker on board? Ever since seeing Bill in Las Vegas at a conference 2 years prior I’ve been a huge fan. A drooling, stalking, obsessed kind of fan. Immediately doubt crept in as we sat in a cozy little cafe across from Central Park. I stupidly ordered chicken parmigiana (never do that in a business meeting) and felt it dripping down my face. Michael kept eating his salmon and spinach omelette without a care in the world.

I didn’t think there was any way somebody like Bill would care to get involved but I lied through the doubts and pushed on. Bill called me from the airport on his way to a bachelor party down south. His call came in 4minutes late. My palms were so sweaty and my voice cracked when I picked up the phone.

Our conversation went well and Bill agreed to help out. Off he went for his honeymoon and I didn’t hear anything from him for two weeks. Out of nowhere I got an email that blew me away.

I think I can convince Nick Tumminello and Jonathan Ross to come on board if you like…

I thought about it for about 20 miliseconds and responded with a simple:

yes. That would be nice thank you

Since then growth has been stable. Good but not great. We’ve had some great articles and been rewarded with increased viewership but we’ve also published some superficial and non useful pieces. Which leads me too…

My promise

I spent a lot of time over the holidays contemplating. My amazing support network lent me their ears and allowed me to talk through all of the amazing things that have happened in the past 6 months.

My emergence from obscurity to semi-obscurity
Making friends with some of my idols. Brad Schoenfeld, Nick Tumminello, Tony Gentilcore, Alex Hutchinson, Ben Bruno, Jonathan Ross, Bill Sonnemaker, Mark Young, Neghar Fonooni, Bret Contreras, Eric Falstrault, Joe Dowdell, James Smith, Kevin Neeld and tons more (I’m really sorry if I missed you)
Continuing to be a part of my amazing clients lives
Finishing my book and signing the publishing contract while getting rave reviews from some super smart folks
And of course the Personal Trainer Development Center

My family will be the first to attest that I hardly had time to shower let alone make sense of all that was happening… Not many people knew that I also wasn’t sleeping. Restless nights made me irritable and I can’t apologize enough to the important people in my life. It came to a pass during a 2 hour conversation with my parents the middle of December. They let me talk while they listened. And I talked. And talked. And talked. I walked home that night and slept 14 hours. The weight had been lifted.

My Decision…

I’m young but all of my hard work has led to this point. I have an unlimited amount to gain and everything to lose. It’s all up to me now. Nobody else. But I know I can do it.

I can’t tell you what the decision is yet but know this. The PTDC is about to grow in ways I never thought possible — in ways that I could only lie about before.

Please add me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, send me an email (jonathan@theptdc.com) or all 3. Know that you, whoever’s reading this has provided me the signs to go on. I’m indebted to you and have made my decision to help you in every way that I can. And I’m going to do it…

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Comments

Nick Chertock says:

January 3, 2012 at 10:21 pm

I’m intrigued. What could this big decision be? Going back to a workout of just hip adduction machine and concentration curls performed in the squat rack?

- Jonathan says:
  
  January 3, 2012 at 10:42 pm
  
  Ugh
  
Scott says:

January 4, 2012 at 9:25 am

Jon, as always I’m excited to see where your plans take you brother, I look forward to catching up too!

- Jonathan says:
  
  January 4, 2012 at 9:32 am
  
  Me too. We’ll talk soon
  
Patness says:

January 4, 2012 at 9:58 am

Jon buddy!!! Great article!!!! Your a blog building machine!!!! Not many people can do it like you do and that’s coming from a blog designer that has built and monitors hundreds of blogs! Its pretty normal for people to bend the truth about their websites traffic so don’t feel alone on that one. From what I see you have already inspired and reached tens of thousands of people and there are many many to come. That’s something not many people out there get to accomplish! You must help others before you can help yourself. Keep truckin and I will continue looking forward to future articles! Also, don’t forget I’m here if you ever need help or a lil motivation Cheers bud!

- Jonathan says:
  
  January 6, 2012 at 5:06 pm
  
  Thanks Pat. You’ve been a massive help to me. I wouldn’t have known where to get started without you and I appreciate the constant support. I’m sure all the emails get annoying at times.
  
Dean Somerset says:

January 4, 2012 at 10:52 am

Congrats on the big move, and I don’t have a millisecond of doubt that it will be the right one for you. I’m more than happy to be associated with the PTDC in any way possible, but this next time I’m in Toronto, I’m buying dinner and beers

- Jonathan says:
  
  January 6, 2012 at 5:07 pm
  
  Sweet. I’m going to order one of those fancy European beers
  
Jonathan Lund says:

January 4, 2012 at 10:59 am

Great post. It even motivates me, as I’ve felt lost/numb/doubtful about my place in the fitness and wellness field. I’ve spent too much of my life and money earning degrees, certifications that have now lapsed because I now have no money to go to trainings; my professor at University was right: you are really on your own out here. In nursing, or physiotherapy, for example, there’s such a cut-out path of what you do, where you work and colleagues you’re surrounded by. In fitness, you can be an independent contractor and never see another fitness professional for months. You can be the owner of your own club, which makes you trainer, housekeeper, accountant, aerobics instructor, etc., and with businesses opening and closing so frequently now, it’s no longer a surprise to walk down the street and see the lights out and the closed sign on the door after two years. Congrats on just doing something – maybe it will inspire a lot of us to do the same, at a time when nobody knows what to do next, or worse, they’ve given up hope to even try. Keep us posted!

- Jonathan says:
  
  January 6, 2012 at 5:09 pm
  
  Thanks Jonathan. I’m glad my story helped to motivate you. If you ever need anything at all don’t hesitate to shoot me an email at jonathan@theptdc.com. If I can’t help you I’ll try to hook you up with somebody who can.
  
Anoop says:

January 7, 2012 at 8:58 am

Hi Jon,

Keep up the great work! You are sure an inspiration for a lot of young trainers in the field.

- Jonathan says:
  
  January 7, 2012 at 2:26 pm
  
  Thanks Anoop. From somebody I admire that means a lot