The Double Life That Prepared Me for This

For seven years, I was living two completely different lives at the same time. During the week, I was in corporate. Meetings, clients, presentations, and everything that comes with building a career inside a large organization. From the outside, it looked stable and predictable. It was a path that made sense and one that I had spent years building.

At the same time, there was another version of my life that most people did not see. Nights and weekends were spent in gyms, teaching classes, training clients, creating content, and slowly immersing myself in the health and wellness world. It was not for the money but more so… I wanted to be there. Looking back, I did not realize it at the time, but I was building something long before HUMN ever existed.

Why I Started

In 2018, I became a group fitness instructor and started teaching classes outside of my corporate role. A year later, I added personal training and began working one on one with clients. From the outside, it might not have made sense. My career was in a good place and I had a system that was working. But it was never about adding more work but finding something deeper. I knew what it felt like to question whether I was enough. Fitness gave me a way to rebuild that belief in myself and I wanted to create that same experience for others. That became the driver behind everything I was doing outside of corporate.

Building Without Knowing It

When everything shut down in 2020, I still felt the need to find a way to help people through fitness. That led me to teaching myself how to create content. I bought a camera, learned how to edit, and committed to making one hundred videos before deciding whether it was worth continuing. The first video took ten hours to produce and it was far from perfect, but it was a start.

At the same time, I was getting deeper into endurance sports and eventually obstacle course racing. I wasn’t the best when I started and in fact, I got worked early on. But over time, through consistency and learning, I improved. I reached a point where I was competing at a high level and even standing on podiums. None of this was planned. It was simply the result of following something that felt meaningful and continuing to show up.

The Turning Point

In December of 2023, I competed in the Spartan World Championship in Dubai. On the flight back to the States, I found myself asking a question that had been building for some time. What’s next?

I had experienced different versions of myself over the years. The corporate professional… trainer… content creator… athlete. Each one taught me something, but I knew that none of them were the final destination. At the same time, I was approaching a point in life where I began thinking differently about time. It was no longer just about income or achievements but purpose.

What am I here to do?
How do I leave this place better than I found it?

That question changed everything.

Taking the Leap

In January of 2025, I made the decision to leave corporate without having all the answers. It was not because I had everything figured out but because I knew I wouldn’t find the answer by staying where I was. That decision was not about walking away from something. It was about stepping toward something I had been building for years without fully realizing it. The double life I had been living was not a distraction but preparation.

Every late night, every early morning, every class taught, every client worked with, and every relationship built was contributing to something bigger. I was developing skills, perspective, and a network that would eventually support what I am building today with HUMN.

Reflection

When I look back now, the double life no longer feels like two separate paths but one continuous journey. The corporate experience taught me how businesses operate, how to communicate, and how to think strategically. The time spent in health and wellness taught me how to connect with people, how to lead, and how to build something that has meaning. HUMN is the intersection of those two worlds.

What once felt like managing two lives was actually the process of becoming the person capable of building what comes next. I didn’t have a clear roadmap at the time, but I kept moving toward what felt right and trusted that it would eventually connect and now, looking at where things are today, it’s clear. None of that time was wasted. It was all preparation.