We were lucky to catch up with Evan Levy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Evan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

I would say the most important lesson I’ve learned at a prior job is to not let others determine your own value and worth. I was a personal trainer full-time at a major commercial gym in New Jersey. By most standards I was doing pretty well for myself – lots of clients, making decent money, building a great reputation. But I was killing myself on my feet for 6 days a week and the gym was taking HALF my money. Sounds like a bad deal if you ask me, basically paying super expensive rent for me doing all the work. But for 4 years I simply didn’t have the guts to leave – it was comfortable and I was being complacent.

Finally, in the summer of 2015, I was burned out and had enough. I didn’t need to work this hard and give half my money away. So I finally picked up and left, started my own business, and never looked back!

Is it more work to find clients rather than the gym funneling them to you? Of course. However, I get to make my own rules, create my own schedule, set my OWN prices, and work with the clients that I want. I can determine my own worth and value by how much I help people and how good of a job I do, not what a company arbitrarily dictates I “should” make.

For me, running my own business is definitely a lot of work, but it’s all about the freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment I get from truly helping people on my own terms!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Born and raised in New Jersey right outside New York City, Evan didn’t always know he wanted to get into fitness. He grew up playing baseball and basketball, but as a self-proclaimed “nerd” he was more interested in Legos, video games, and reading than working out. It wasn’t until he got to Rutgers University where the fitness seeds were planted. Between all the partying, his friends taught him how to lift in the grungy college gym (more like a dungeon) and he got hooked. He ended up majoring in Exercise Physiology and the rest is history!

Upon graduating, Evan worked as a trainer in every possible fitness setting you could think of: corporate, physical therapy, medical fitness, commercial gyms, and sports performance facilities. The varied environments and even more diverse clientele – from grandmothers to NFL players – led to a plethora of knowledge and experience that comes in handy to this day.

Along the way, he has competed in 5 powerlifting meets, 3 bodybuilding shows, and dozens of fitness modeling photoshoots. Learning about different training styles and proper nutrition allows Evan to serve his clients much better. It has been a never-ending quest of constant learning, self-improvement, and self-development.

Evan’s philosophy is very comprehensive and goes far beyond simply working out and eating healthy. It encompasses every aspect of health and wellness you can conceive of – lifting, cardio, nutrition, supplementation, sleep, stress, stretching, recovery work, hydration, and most importantly having the right mindset. Your physical and mental health are directly intertwined, and the confidence and self-esteem you build from overcoming challenges is unparalleled.

Evan’s goal with each and every client he ever works with is not just to get them in shape – it’s to positively impact their lives and make them happier healthier human beings.

His biggest passion besides fitness is travel. He is currently focused on scaling his online business so he can help as many people as possible and travel the world while doing so, being able to work from anywhere. He also wants to teach fellow travelers how to maintain their fitness lifestyle, showing them how to effectively workout and eat right no matter where they are in the world.

Evan currently resides in beautiful Greenville, South Carolina, with his incredibly cute, smart, and athletic border collie, Simba.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Going back to the wonderful year of 2020 (we all know how that went). I was a personal trainer full-time at a private gym in Tenafly, NJ and had a solid clientele. Then BOOM Covid hit, everything shut down, and I had nowhere to go. All gyms were closed. I’ve been working out most of my life and NEVER encountered a gym being taken away from me – it was a shock and I didn’t know what to do.

I sulked about it for a solid week and stuffed my face with pizza and ice cream (I was angry and depressed about the whole situation). And then it hit me – there was a set of dumbbells that had been sitting in my parents’ shed for 10 years. My mom kept telling me to sell them but I knew they would come in handy one day. Little did I know that moment would be when the whole world would shut down!

I grabbed the weights (5 lb all the way to 50s), resistance bands, medicine balls, and yoga mats, put them in my trunk, and set up a whole gym next to a picnic table in a local park. I invited all my clients to come train with me there if they were comfortable, and a lot of them did! It was outdoors and they were going crazy being stuck inside, so they loved it. Also, most other trainers didn’t want to work, yet I was still hustling, so I was able to attract lots of new people as well.

Around this time I also got into the online coaching more seriously out of necessity, which was a blessing in disguise because that’s what I do today full-time! I was able to take a very difficult situation, pivot, and make the absolute most of it.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I’m huge on constantly learning and growing. Some of the best books that I’ve read that have impacted my entrepreneurial philosophy are Think and Grow Rich, The Power of Now, Atomic Habits, Relentless, and 100 Million Dollar Offers. Books are basically a way of downloading someone’s past experience into your brain. Learning from others’ successes, as well as mistakes, is one of the greatest life hacks you can use.

I’m also a big fan of podcasts and learned a ton from Gary Vee, Ed Mylett, and Andy Frisella. Andy in particular has given me more business and life advice than anyone else I can think of. I’m very grateful to be learning from such outstanding people.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.greenvillegains.com
• Instagram: greenvillegains
• Youtube: greenvillegains
• Other: Tiktok: greenvillegains

Image Credits
Jennifer Curtis Dylan Smith