Hey Ya’ll
This is 15 years in the making but I am finally starting a blog. In the blog I will be sharing the biggest lessons I have learned over the last 15 years that relate to living a happier and healthier life.
Some if it will be directly related to the things we think about for our fitness goals like working out and nutrition but a lot of it will be lessons that have become a lot more relevant than I ever thought as a small town guy who just thought all you needed to do is “work hard”.
Feel free to comment, ask questions and take as much as you want or need from the content. It’s here to be helpful and to spark more conversations and action toward being the happiest and healthiest versions of ourselves.
Now I do have a very long intro that I send out via email, but I am going to keep this one a little more short and to the point.
My name is Matt :). I also have a twin brother Mitch who is a co-owner of Evolve along with an older brother who has 4 kids including identical twin boys. So don’t marry either of us unless you want the chance of twins.
As of this writing, I am soon to be 37 so I grew up in the heart of the 90s in Hilden, Nova Scotia. For what we were interested in, it was the perfect place to grow up. We had flat streets for road hockey right out of our front door, we hand ponds that froze in the winter and were within walking or biking distance of the soccer and baseball fields. We loved sports and that’s all we wanted to do with some breaks to watch CMT and record all the country music videos on VCR (I wish I still had those).
Note: I am the biggest country music fan you are ever going to meet. 90s is my first love followed by Texas country and a mix of old and new.
Now let’s back it up a bit…..
For as long as I can remember, I knew for sure that I wanted to be a gym teacher and I wanted to coach sports. I wanted to be like my parents and I wanted to be like all of the amazing teachers and coaches I had over the years. They did so much for us and while I didn’t know it then, I know now that the only way to repay someone who gives so much is to just pay it forward to the next generation.
So off I went to take Human Kinetics at St. FX where I learned pretty fast that I would rather be playing basketball during the day than going to class. To make a very long story short, I spent 5 years in a 4 year degree, I met all of my best friends, I coached and volunteered more than I ever thought possible, I created a basketball league that is still going (the XBL) and I made some amazing connections that helped my start my career in the fitness industry. A big student loan and probably some of the worst grades you’ll ever see, but it was so worth it for the experience I gained in other ways.
The good news was that personal training was two difference academic courses at X so I took them both and realized that I could teach and coach in a different way. My 2nd to last summer in 2008 while working Sunday night to Friday morning night shifts at Home Hardware in Debert I spent every weekend in Halifax training some teen athletes I had met on Kijiji. Their family ended up becoming great friends and in 2009 they helped me get Evolve Fitness going.
But here is the thing. Evolve Fitness was a 1-1 personal training studio in downtown Halifax that I happened to walk by in the summer that year. I walked in looking for a job and with 0 dollars to my name and no business degree I was able to take over the business for the owner who was moving with his family to Australia. Special thanks to the LeGay family for helping me make that happen, I truly owe you forever.
Now if you want to hear my whole story, I don’t mind telling you. It’s a typical ups and downs story with many many lessons learned along the way. My first year in business I had revenue of $35,000 and my rent alone was $3000/month. You can imagine how it felt to have every rent check bounce for both where you lived and for your business with nowhere to turn for help. Some of you reading this are still clients from 15 years ago and didn’t know how much I was cringing inside when you forgot your check for your next set of sessions and I said it was okay when it really wasn’t.
Now here we are today almost 15 years later and while a lot has changed, everything is still the same. I still love coaching and teaching, it just happens in a different way than it did back then.
Here is a little timeline of the journey:
-September 1 2009 take over Evolve Fitness
-January 2012 Mitch moves home from Korea and starts working with me (funny side note that Victoria had been working part time with me before Mitch moved home)
-May 2013 we move and expand into a garage on Creighton Street and now start offering boot camps. Frank (from Bedford Evolve) becomes a client/friend and eventually starts teaching for us part time
-September 2014 Alan moves home from Newfoundland and starts working with us
-February 2018 Evolve Fitness Forever begins
-July 2018 we take a HUGE risk and move from 2400 square feet to 21,000 on Strawberry Hill. Mitch becomes a partner in the business as well.
-October 2018 we first say no, but then yes to opening a gym in Bedford in an amenity building with the commercial campus off Innovation Drive
-March 2020 we all know what happened. Maybe one day I will open up about this but I am not there yet. Unless you were in it as a small business owner or you know people who own small businesses you may never know the true impacts this had on our business and so many others.
-July 2022 we buy The Barn in Elmsdale and turn it into Evolve Elmsdale
-December 2022 we buy Revolution Fitness in Dartmouth and turn it into Evolve Dartmouth
-October 2023 we open Evolve Integrated Health in Halifax
-Writing this today we have a lot more in the works and have no plans to slow down.
I think it’s relevant to say that I started this journey with no real vision and I wasn’t really clear on my values. I just knew that I wanted to help people but I didn’t really know what that meant back then. It is now as clear as it gets. I want to help as many people as possible be the happiest and healthiest versions of themselves and I want to change the way Nova Scotians age and get healthy. Along the way we also want to ensure we are pillars in the community and that we give back and serve others to the best of our ability.
Now this is a blog about me but it’s really a blog about Mitch, our team, our clients and everyone reading this. When I was a 1-1 trainer I had a very clear max number of people I could help. Then Mitch came along and together we were able to double that. Now here we are many years later with the absolute BEST team and the best community around us who lift us up and inspire us to keep doing more. Without a great team you will always get stuck. And you need a team who shares you values and wants to help people just as much as you do.
And then the magic really is all of you. I hate sounding cliche but it’s simple math. When a new person walks into Evolve, they will see a handful of trainers (or less) and they will see a lot of clients. Their experience is going to be shaped more by their experience with you than it is with us. And you all have done such an amazing job making Evolve a safe, non intimidating and fun place to get healthy. I wake up feeling grateful for that every single day. So thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Now within that timeline I didn’t talk about the hard times, the times I was in over my head and the times that I felt so lost I didn’t know what to do. It’s too much to type for today. But these blog posts will talk about it in a different way because I will talk a lot about lessons learned in hopes that I can help others overcome the same obstacles I faced but much faster and easier.
I will say this right now though. Please ask for help. My only regrets from asking others for help is that I didn’t do it sooner because every time it was like the weight of the world off my shoulders. And I have gotten more help than you could ever imagine that helped me overcome some really big obstacles.
I used to not feel proud. I always thought I should be doing better or I could be doing more. I thought my obstacles and struggles shouldn’t have happened. Now I realize that this is all part of the journey and my personal story. I am proud. I have come a long way and I am going to continue to keep getting better. I know what my values are and the things that are most important to me and while I am not perfect, those values are at the forefront every day.
As it says on the walls in our Halifax location, “the best is yet to come”.
Thank you for making it this far. If you are a new friend, please say hi and reach out any time and if you are a current friend, thank you for being you. You are the best.
See you soon.
Matt
