My Story.. My Journey.. My Mission..

Life was great growing up. I wouldn’t call it typical but through the eyes of a child born into an environment, everything seems normal. Normal is relative and I say this because I grew up in the 80s in a third world country (Haiti) with lots of family and by no means did I ever feel out of place. We never seemed to be missing anything, especially food. I lived in Haiti until I was about 4 or 5 years old and came to the United States. I would spend the school year in the states and back to Haiti for the summers. Every visit meant two and half months of feasting and travels around the country visiting friends and family. Afterall, Haiti is a very small country.

Let’s fast forward a few years into my early teens where living in the states was almost like being in Haiti because my extended family feasted the same way. Unfortunately, this way of eating, which included lots of fried foods rich in saturated fats, eventually making me an overweight kid at the age of thirteen. Remember what I said about seeing things through the eyes of a child? Well, everything seems ok until it is not ok. Ironically, my family sort of celebrated my obesity because being large meant that you were not poor while in America, being a fat kid meant you were made fun of. During those times, was when I first felt uncomfortable in my own skin. Even my father made negative comments about how fat I was, which lead me to think every single person that I made eye contact with looked at me the same way.

I won’t go too much into the psychological impacts of this but nonetheless I was ashamed, I had low self-esteem, I had no confidence and mostly want to be alone. These feelings haunted me for quite some time almost making me socially awkward. Well then came football. I only had a few friends into my teens and signed up for the football team because they did and despite my mental setbacks, it was cool playing on a team with your friends. As I played, inevitably I started losing weight and feeling better about myself, before football season was over, I joined the track team doing the shotput and discus. I later also did the 50-meter sprints. During the off season, my friends and I (notably many more friends at that time) would get together and play basketball. It didn’t take long for me to understand that being physically active had so many benefits, especially mental ones. I quickly felt more confident, my self-esteem issues dwindled away, and I was socially comfortable. Following high school, I enlisted in the U.S. Marines Corps. From bootcamp to the various training required early on, I had the opportunity to truly catapult my physique. It was then I made it my mission to try and help as many as I can never feel the way that I did. Let me be clear, my profession is as an engineer at NASA however I also became a personal trainer because I wanted to help others understand the benefits of exercising and healthy eating. I also became a certified life coach because I wanted to be a sounding board for those who needed to navigate through their feelings or deal with anything mentally. I own an entertainment company because life is too short, and it should include time to party and lastly, I own a fitness center franchise to continue my mission of helping others become fit and live a healthy lifestyle.

Having helped thousands of clients over the past 25 years, I am forever grateful having been part of their journey and those interactions have afforded me organic growth in ways that couldn’t happen any other way. I too constantly seek to be a better version of myself every day. I bring my organic self no matter what I get involved in and aim to always shed positivity in any way possible. This includes motivational speaking, mentoring, writing books, and social media postings. If I can put a smile on one person’s face or help one person see through a situation or help someone change their lives or become a better version of themselves, then I am happy. People support me and what I do because they always know they will always get the best out of me, and it is an honor to do anything that I can for others. I truly believe that is what makes my businesses and endeavors successful. One of the most important aspects of this is as a father I get to be a role model for my children and help prepare them for their future.