Stephen is a former fat kid turned celebrity fitness trainer and fat loss and muscle building expert. He struggled with his weight for most of his childhood and into early adult life. It wasn’t until high school that Stephen got tired of feeling sick and tired with how he looked. So he decided to do something about it. Taking the first step of action towards bettering his health and image would start a sequence of events over the next few years that would ultimately change the direction of his life.
Today, Stephen has grown his Instagram account to over 70k+ followers at the time of this article and has helped thousands of people all over the world reach their fitness goals and get results. I had the opportunity to catch up with Stephen at a Tai Lopez mastermind event in Miami last month and I was able to interview him about his career on my podcast. Here are some of the key takeaways from that conversation.
What’s your backstory?
I am a former fat kid turned fat loss and muscle building expert. I struggled with my weight for most of my childhood and early adult life. It wasn’t until high school that I got tired of feeling sick and tired with how I looked. So I decided to do something about it. Taking the first step of action towards bettering my health and image would start a sequence of events over the next few years that would ultimately change the direction of my life.
I became obsessed with seeing my body change week over week and I wanted to learn everything I could about the human anatomy and nutrition and weight training. My first job was working at Gold’s Gym where I was the cleaning boy, wiping down machines and cleaning bathrooms…but I didn’t care because I loved being in that atmosphere and talking to all of the personal trainers and bodybuilders, trying to soak up as much information as I could.
After graduating from college and getting my Bachelors degree I went to work in the corporate world. It was a typical 9-5 sitting in a cubicle. I did it for 2 years and was miserable every day. I knew that life wasn’t for me, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. During this time my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer so I knew I didn’t want to be away from her all day. My good friend was the head personal trainer at a prominent country club where I lived and asked me to come work with him. The hours were good and the pay wasn’t bad so I did it. During this time I was training some of the most powerful CEO’s in the country and some celebrities.
About a year after being diagnosed I watched my mom take her last breath. This was a turning point in my life. She was only 52 years old. I realized how fragile life was. And I knew I didn’t want to spend my life training people. I felt like I had a lot of knowledge to share about fat loss and fitness so I started sharing my thoughts and beliefs on social media. Little by little I started gaining traction and started to build a following. At first I just wanted to do it for fun because I truly loved helping people, but I started getting tons of messages asking if I had a program to buy or if I did any coaching. This led me to create my first fat loss program.
Momentum grew and shortly after launching my program I was able to leave my personal training job and do my online fitness business full time. In a very short amount of time I have helped thousands of people all of the world reach their fitness goals and my client transformations are some of the most impressive around.
Currently I am getting ready to do something no other fitness influencer has done before. I am doing a 12-week transformation challenge in which the winner will win a brand new car. I know the hardest part about getting started is lack of motivation so if people know they can possibly win a car, then that motivation will get them to the finish line.
If someone would want to emulate your career, what would you suggest are the most important things to do?
I think it’s important to truly love what you do. If you get into a business of a specific field just for monetary reasons you won’t last long. I worked for free for 2 years just providing value and creating content because I truly loved helping and educating others. The financial rewards came later on. You need to be willing to be a student of patience and consistency before you can reap the rewards of financial and material success.
What are the most exciting projects you are working on now?
I am getting ready to launch a 12-week transformation contest in which the winner will be getting a brand new car! It’s never been done before and I am excited to be launching it. I also have a project in the works with a Hollywood celebrity. We are working on a fitness program that will be announced over the next few months.
You can follow Stephen Campolo on Instagram @stephencampolo