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

Alright, Joseph thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

Growing up the youngest of 4 kids, 2 sisters and a brother there was no dull moments growing up!

To pinpoint one singular moment would be easy but the culmination of 100’s of moments throughout my childhood would best define who I am today. We grew up a very modest upbringing with parents that were raised by Miners on both sides of our family. From day one we were instilled with hard work ethic, old school morals and respect. My parents were not the kind of parents that coddled or felt sorry for us, they simply pushed us to work through tough times with a positive mindset. A great way to describe our childhood would be, if you fell and scraped yourself up, rub some dirt on it and keep moving forward. An upbringing I wouldn’t trade for the world!!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Growing up in a gym my parents opened up when I was 12 cast a ripple that has lasted to this day. “Heartbeats” was my parents gym that ran for some years and as they closed it some of the equipment was moved to our very large 1 car garage which was the only other gym in town other than the schools gym. At some point, most of my friends, coaches and neighbors used our well equipped home gym over the years.

Much of how we pushed ourselves and trained in our home gym are still techniques I use for myself and my clients today. I’d attribute a great deal of how I push myself and my clients through hurdles, to those early lessons in that gym. From old school posters of Corinna Everson, Franco Columbo and Arnold Schwarzenegger for motivation to cheering each other on during our workouts, I’d say so much of what I learned personally in that gym has forged who I am and how I carry myself today. One other major event that’s helped me with motivation for myself and my clients was an extremely violent motorcycle accident I was in December of 2015. I’ve used that event to lead by example and prove to my clients that an event that almost took my life isn’t something that you should allow yourself to use as an excuse to put your health on the back burner.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I’ve got 2 business partners, one I’ve been friends with now for over a decade. My relationship with him grew from us training together for years out of a local corporate gym. That grew into me training him for a some years and us establishing a life lasting kind of friendship to where I’d consider him and his family, family of mine. I’ve always had dreams of owning my own gym and he shared that same dream. Multiple times we pushed for the idea to happen and after the 3rd go around we were able to make it happen.

My second business partner and I were both trainers out of a small studio gym where we gained mutual respect as colleagues and as the idea morphed he became a part of that process and here we are, business partners in a gym that’s making some good progress!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The largest pivot I’ve ever had to make in my life was after my Accident in 2015. I had been in the construction business well over 20 years and it was a very successful career. After my accident I realized after losing my leg among dozens of other injuries that my ability to do the work I used to do was in jeopardy so I had to change my focus to what I knew for well over 3 decades, the fitness industry. It’s ALWAYS been a dream of mine but it was one that required a big transition monetarily to make, construction provided a lucrative living so to start from scratch was and has been my most difficult but rewarding experiences in my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: Riseabovehealthandfitness.com
• Instagram: @riseabovehealthandfitness
• Facebook: Rise Above Health And Fitness

Image Credits
Joseph Ettore Photography IG: @jep_photoart