We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ian Buchanan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career

The United States continues to fall down the academic ladder in comparison to other world powers. One of the reasons is because of the population. Whenever there’s a homogenous population (race, socio economics) scores tend to be higher. Since we’re such a melting pot with different races, languages, finances it makes teaching in a diverse area a bit more challenging. However the major issue is that we need to do a better job of educating students on subject matter they’ll actually use in real life settings. As a former educator I recall countless hours of teaching students the quadratic formula, algebraic equations, and circumference of a circle. Outside of the classroom experience I’ve never used any of these in real life settings. Instead we should be instructing students on budgeting, investing, credit scores, and even entrepreneurship. Einstein said never memorize something you can look up. Today we’re an information highway with knowledge at our finger tips with the closest search engine. The material students are being taught and the manner in which they are being taught are outdated.

Ian, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been a personal trainer since 2006. In 2005 I found myself bigger than I had ever been in my life. My body fat had sky rocketed and I was uncomfortable in my own skin. I was getting married in December of 2005 and knew I was about to be in front of all my friends and family that had been used to seeing the in-shape and athletic version of myself so I felt compelled to get a personal trainer. I was in grad school at the time with limited resources so spent almost all my refund check to train for 3 months prior to the big day. I lost around 3 to 5 pounds working with him and it was an overall frustrating experience. The following year I began to really teach myself the value of nutrition and ended up dropping 20 pounds in one month. My negative experience with a trainer affirmed that if he could do this so could I. So I started training with a desire to help others who had lost their way and had no idea how to get back to the best version of themselves.

While I was training I was also an educator. I taught 6, 7th, and 8th grade math, as well as college level classes. So a lot of my personal philosophy in fitness bleeds over from my time in the classrooms. Math and science are the main components to a successful transformation with my clients. Everything we/they do is based off of scientifically based research which takes the guess work out of the equation. The same way I taught formulas in my math classes is the same way I figure out the correct macros and calories a client should be consuming and the deficit needed to ensure they continue to drop at the desired pace.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I first entered into fitness full time it was such an exciting time and business quickly grew. However the next year around the time most in the fitness industry look forward to (New Years) 7 additional gyms opened up within 5 miles of mine. My financial numbers were depressingly low and I questioned whether I was going to make it. I remember dodging one particular bill collector who would actually come to my gym lol It was a horrible feeling and time but I knew quitting wasn’t going to get me out of this predicament so I pivoted and changed my focus from individual training in the area to corporate as well as virtual training which became the saving grace for my first gym. For those of you in entrepreneurship you know there will be some challenges but the biggest key to success is knowing when to hang up the towel vs gritting your teeth and fighting for what you want. Fighting doesn’t mean physical but mentally and creatively in todays time. Learning how to think outside the box and making your strengths catapult you into financial success.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I started teaching in 2007 but never abandoned the fitness lifestlye and had a few clients here and there. In 2011 I moved to Tennessee and ended up taking a $20,000 pay cut. Teachers don’t make that much to begin with but after realizing I could work full time at McDonalds and make more I decided it was time to work for myself and try something I was passionate about. I started in a parking lot at a local college, then upgraded to an elementary school gym, then a church and finally a few months after beginning I decided to purchase a 10,000 square foot building downtown. I saw growth in reputation and status during my early stages and felt strongly that in order to be taken seriously and move to the next level I had to have my own space. Even though there were some rocky moments I was fortunate to always be able to pay my rent, bills, and trainers. Once I got my first corporate account which took care of my monthly rent for the facility we had much more of a comfortable experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.giveus30.com
• Instagram: JamaicanMuscle
• Facebook: Ian Buchanan II

Image Credits
Trunetta Atwater Kim Roseberry Dean Greene Sam Terry Kauwane Burton