Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Dunn.
Nick, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am a full-time nutrition, strength & conditioning, & boxing coach out of Pasadena, CA.
Straight out of high school, I had ambitions of going to physical therapy school. But, during this time I fell in love with the sport MMA and pursued amateur fighting. Throughout this short-lived fighting career and receiving some serious head injuries, I realized that the pursuit of prizefighting was not a good fit for me. I began to coach middle schoolers at an after school program and slowly began to start coaching at Pasadena Fight Academy, a gym which I’ve trained at for eight years. I fell in love with coaching and through much consideration, I decided to pursue a career in coaching martial arts.
In 2016 I graduated from Cal State Northridge with a B.S. in Applied Fitness and began full-time coaching classes and private clients in boxing, kickboxing, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
While working with different populations of clients from professional/amateur fighters, working moms, young children, and your everyday clients, I started to see that most people have a very distorted perception with fitness which have been caused by dishonest myths spread by marketing strategies to sell products and supplements. These common myths impact people’s perceptions of nutrition and fitness. These perceptions commonly lead to inconsistent and unsustainable practices, which is harmful especially in nutritional interventions.
This has given me the opportunity to educate my clients on improving their quality of life through training and sustainable nutritional practices.
Today, I work with everyday people primarily in the online setting. I primarily focus on nutrition coaching and strength training. I love the work that I get to do because it allows me to work with clients all over the world and make some meaningful changes on how my clients deal with their relationship with food and fitness.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Throughout my career as a coach, I’ve dealt with struggles that I’d never thought that I could recover from. I’ve had issues within my career that challenged me to move into a direction that I’d never thought I could do.
From moving from a gym that I’ve called home for eight years and transitioning into an entirely different industry and learning on the fly was a very scary situation that forced me to grow and evolve in ways that I did not think was possible.
During the closures of gyms due to Covid-19, I thought, “What am I going to do?!” There was so much uncertainty within the first 2-3 months of the quarantine. My 40-50+ hour working weeks were suddenly cut down to ZERO. I was scared and a lot of panic set in. I was fortunate to have some guidance from colleagues which allowed me to create a fitness platform that allowed me to still educate clients through online content.
NTE Strength & Conditioning – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I currently run a strength & conditioning personal coaching business along with my online nutrition coaching.
I primarily work with everyday people that are struggling with their own training and I help my clients establish sustainable, science-based practices to get them to their weight loss goals. Currently, my business operates online, which gives me the pleasure to work with people from across the world in the U.K. to South America.
Misinformation is a huge problem in the nutrition and fitness world. Contradictory information plagues this highly competitive industry in hopes to sell supplement products, training methods, and diets.
This issue is a huge reason why a lot of my clients seem to feel hopeless when it comes to their own relationship with fitness and nutrition. Clients tend to feel intimidated on how to start their path towards either losing weight or trying to implement fitness into their busy life.
One of my favorite parts of my business is educating clients and helping them change how they look at fitness & nutrition.
My job is to simplify their approach and to provide the methods that will allow them to reach their goals. Providing the right framework for each individual client is very important so they truly understand the right approach to training and nutrition to maximize their results and taking the guesswork out.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Any time I can help my clients achieve their desired goal is always an amazing feeling. I can’t say that I have “Proudest Moment” in my career, but I think that I’m lucky that I get to feel proud every time one of my clients surprise themselves with how much they can achieve with the right game plan.
The proudest moments in my career are when my clients take what they have learned from me and used those methods to further improve their quality of their life. There’s no better feeling than when my clients continue to make strides with their fitness/nutrition goals independently.
This means I’ve done my job of helping them make sustainable, life-changing habits and behaviors that will serve them a lifetime.
Contact Info:
- Website: Nicktheear.com
- Phone: 6263542877
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicktheear/
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