I grew up overweight. Got made fun of. Turned that pain into something much darker and stopped eating altogether. Exercised twice a day on nothing. Drank tea to suppress hunger. Lost the weight fast but lost myself in the process.
I became a professional footballer at 15. Physically capable of things most people couldn't do. But mentally I was a wreck. Anxious, malnourished, barely holding it together. The pressure of it broke me down before I could build myself up.
I left, came home, rebuilt my confidence playing local football and being around good people. Eventually signed professionally again at 18. At 22 I moved to America with my best mate, found myself, fixed my relationship with food and exercise properly for the first time, and came back knowing exactly what I wanted to do.
"I had made every mistake possible. That became the foundation for everything."
By 2014 I was coaching clients from my parents' garage while working factory shifts drilling holes in doors. Up at 5:30am. Coaching until 10pm five days a week. All day Saturday.
I knew I had something more to give than drilling holes in doors. So I kept going.