Every business has an origin story. Mine was recently featured in Griffith University’s Alumni Beacon Bulletin — but there’s more to it than what fit in that write-up.
After migrating to Australia and completing my Sport Management degree at Griffith, I built a career on the Gold Coast through persistence, learning, and a willingness to begin again. It starts before the Camry — working night shifts just to build the beginnings of a career in fitness.
That drive carried me a long way. Until 2017, when I lost my life savings investing in a gym without proper legal agreements in place. Overnight, the money was gone — and for a while, so was the roof over my head. I slept in my car, wondering how I was going to rebuild. (You can read the full story of how PrestigePT came to be on our site — this post picks up on a lesson from that chapter I don’t talk about as often.)
I did rebuild. Today I’m the Founder and Managing Director of Prestige Personalised Training, based in Bundall on the Gold Coast. But the real lesson from that period didn’t come from the money I lost — it came from a mistake that took me years longer to notice.
The Belief That Nearly Broke Everything
My early theory of success was simple: work harder than everyone else, and the rest sorts itself out. For a while, that mindset felt like strength. It got me through the low points and kept me moving when most people would’ve walked away.
But “working hard” and “building a business” turned out to be two different things. I was the trainer, the salesperson, the receptionist, the cleaner, the marketer and the accountant — every hat, all the time. I believed no one else would care as much as I did, so every decision ran through me.
That belief got its hardest test during COVID. Rather than close, I trained clients in a 4×4 metre tent outside my home for almost two years — rain, wind or heat. Clients kept showing up because they trusted the coaching. But the habit I reinforced in myself was a dangerous one: whenever something went wrong, my answer was always to work longer hours.
Building Systems Instead of Burning Out
The turning point came when I realised I wasn’t building a business — I was building a job that happened to own me. If I took a day off, everything slowed. If I got sick, the business suffered.
So I changed the question, from “how can I do more?” to “how can this operate better?” That single shift reshaped Prestige from the ground up:
- I documented processes instead of holding them in my memory
- We standardised coaching systems, so every client gets the same quality regardless of who’s training them
- I invested in and trusted the coaches who now make up our team, rather than expecting people to “figure it out”
- We built structured, measurable client journeys and communication
That’s the version of Prestige our clients train with today — a team built on consistent systems and genuine standards, not one founder trying to be everywhere at once.
Culture Is a System Too
It would’ve been easy to compete purely on equipment or price. Instead, what actually kept people around was something less tangible: a community where clients feel supported, held accountable and genuinely cared for.
That doesn’t happen by accident. At Prestige, it’s something our whole team is responsible for reinforcing, every session, every day — not a marketing line, but a standard.
What This Means If You’re Training With Us
I spend far less time on the gym floor than I once did — not because I’ve stepped back from the business, but because my role shifted to coaching the coaches, refining our systems and protecting the culture that makes Prestige what it is. Ironically, stepping back in some areas is what let the business — and the coaching you receive — move forward.
Want to know more about the people behind your training? Meet the Prestige Personalised Training team →
My full story was originally featured by Dynamic Business as part of their Founder Friday series.
