Never Too Late

Can you tell me about how you got to where you are today?

 

Yes I can absolutely do that. I think it took me getting to the most miserable point of my life before I realized that you have to do things that make you happy. I was working in New York City doing recruiting for the Wall Street Financial Industry for hedge funds and investment banks and I was doing pretty well. I was 26, 25 years old making a lot of money for someone that age should be making, but at the same time recognized around me that all my hard work wasn’t necessarily going towards me, the dividends weren’t being paid towards me. A very small percentage financially of the placements I made were going to me, the rest were going to the 2 owners of the firm who basically did nothing so, what I decided to do was move firms. I was going to be building out the hedge fund platform of where I was moving to, and that kind of turned into a big mess, only because the market tanked at that point.

 

So I was 28 years old, I was about 80 lbs overweight, completely miserable and felt like what I was doing was not doing anything beneficial for anybody. So I decided to get myself back into shape and through that journey realized that there’s a lot of people who are on the same side as I was that need to go through these mental and physical changes from loosing all the weight and just feeling much more confident about yourself and that’s why I decided to start Pique Fitness and start my own business. And now that I’m doing that, I feel like I’m actually making a change in people’s lives, I can see it, I can see the change being effected everyday, even if it’s little things, I still wake up everyday knowing that I’m going to do something that’s positively affecting somebody’s life. And I’m getting to keep all the money when I do it. 

 

 

Okay, that’s great and you know in kind of making that decision to open Pique Fitness was there people that specifically supported you or didn’t or really inspired you to go for it and make this decision?

 

Yeah I had pretty good support system, my parents who are fairly risk averse were lukewarm about the idea, but they looked back on the things that I’ve done over my life and were like well everything else kind of worked out for him, he works really hard so we’ll be supportive. My girlfriend, Lisa, is very supportive of everything that I do which always helps. I don’t think there are too many people that have negative mindsets around me towards me starting the business and honestly if there were I just didn’t talk to them, because there’s really no place for negativity. When you’re gunna go out on your own and start something, you’re thinking about all the things that are going to go wrong. You know all the negatives, you know what you’re risking, you don’t need people in your ear telling you that on a consistent basis, it’s not worth it. 

 

 

That’s great. And now would you mind explaining a little bit about how you feel towards what you do, your day to day, is this what you wanted, are you happy?

 

Oh I’m very happy. I actually have a couple of very odd moments every so often while I’m training people and they’re talking about work and getting to the office and how they hate work and this and that and work is now and going to work now is a very foreign concept to me because it never feels like I’m working. I’m doing what I want to do and that whole office life that I used to have is so far away like I could never imagine going back and working in an office for somebody. I could never, I just can’t do that anymore, I just wouldn’t be able to do that. My day to day is fairly similar everyday. I do training in the morning, I do training in the evening and in the middle I take care of all the business and administrative stuff. That middle portion of the day is different and the personalities that come in for the training are different too. It’s really a different animal everyday, as much as your day is different, all my client’s days are different and it really lends itself to not being boring. It’s very much on your feet. 

 

 

Okay great. And would you also mind sharing a time when maybe going after what you wanted, trying to start Pique Fitness, became too difficult, maybe you thought about stopping or something?

 

I think it’s too difficult everyday. When I first started I had, I legitimately had 0 people this was just an idea. I rented the space that I’m in now and I was just like alright let’s do it. That was scary because a lot of people who start fitness businesses are either trainers before, at least have some sort of base that they can draw from, but it was rough for a while. It’s still rough, you always worry about whether or not you’re going to be able to get people, but if you have the right as we talked about before support system on your side and you’re keeping your education up on the business end of things. I’ve aligned myself with sort of a licensing partner who helps a lot on the business end of things and client generation. As long as you follow the things that work for people before you, you should expect to see similar results. So yeah, I mean everyday I’m never really comfortable. I’ll probably get to a point where I’m comfortable, I have like numbers and situations in mind but everyday you worry about it, it’s something that doesn’t go away but it’s also something where if you’re competitive and someone who’s really goal oriented and driven I mean that’s what makes you wake up everyday. 

 

 

Okay, that’s wonderful. And now just a little bit to get to know you, kind of where did you go to college, what did you study while you were in school?

 

I studied bio engineering at Syracuse University. My parents are happy that I’m finally using that degree almost 12 years later, because there wasn’t really much overlap from bio engineering to the finance world in terms of recruiting, but yeah now we get to use all my bio mechanic knowledge which is very cool. 

 

 

Back then did you ever see yourself where you are today with Pique Fitness?

 

No No not at all. I graduated high school at 303 lbs, I was overweight in college like fitness was not something that was part of my life. So there’s no way could’ve foreseen what was gunna happen with this business. It took a big personal transformation and realizing all the things that kind of come with that to really spark this idea. There’s just so much garbage out there in terms of fitness that I thought that I would be a very good person to portray that information. 

 

 

And while you’re in this mindset of your life back in college, what kind of advice would you have for people that are currently in college, graduating and thinking about what they want to do with their futures?

 

I think the main thing is to realize that your life right now is not permanent. If you’re faced with a very difficult decision and I know it’s difficult to kind of think like this when you’re 21 because you think that life is what it is right now, anytime you have a difficult decision, always ask yourself is this going to matter in 5 years? Chances are the answer is no and if it is going to matter in 5 years then it’s a decision worth putting some time into. Your life is going to be very fluid. Most people don’t have one career over the span of their lives, they have many. So you just have to be very adaptable to change and don’t get too comfortable. Another piece of advice I could give people is just don’t be afraid of anything. Those superiors at your company are just people like yourself, they have interests, they have things outside of work for you to connect with them on a personal level. Don’t ever be afraid to ask somebody for something, it’s probably the only way you’re going to get what you want. No one is going to come up to you and just give you a promotion or give you more work that you’re looking to do. You have to ask for things. Don’t be afraid to talk to people, don’t be afraid to ask and don’t be afraid to go after what you want. Then third and final piece of advice is to just be nice to everybody because being nice doesn’t cost anything and it will really make you a better person.

 

 

Okay great, thank you Jay!