Rising Stars: Meet Cody Taggart

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cody Taggart.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I assume most people think of personal training and mental health when I pop up in their heads. If you’d like to talk about that, I started as a relatively unhappy, overweight kid in Michigan whose family, like many others, had their fair share of challenges. The last thing I want to do is make this a pity-story. Even though we didn’t come from money, we had to move around a lot and ended up homeless at one point, we had what mattered most and that was love for one another. Sure, if you look at it from the outside, it may not be perfect, but it usually didn’t “feel” all that bad because of the love my parents, my siblings and I had for each other. I attribute that love to most of the “success” I’ve had so far in my life. Without their support, I don’t know where the hell I’d be or what the hell I’d be doing.

In my teens and early 20’s, I continued to fall into a darker hole internally. I tried to bury my feelings in food and alcohol and eventually grew to 320 pounds with my mental health at an all-time low. I was flunking out of college, I didn’t have any career prospects, I was disgusted with what I saw in the mirror, I was still broke, I was unhappy with who I was as a person, I just felt like this whole “life” thing wasn’t made for me. Like what was I contributing? I essentially felt like a waste of space.

Eventually, I flunked out of college and moved back home with my mom and dad. Didn’t feel great about that either. Still didn’t have any career prospects. My mom has been a nurse for 27 years now (she and all nurses are super hero’s) so I worked at the hospital with her as a nurse tech. I typically took care of all of the patients who came in after an attempted suicide or an overdose of some sort. That was by far the most interesting job I had, but I think I learned more about people there than I did in school. A year or so in, I decided to give X-ray tech a shot at a community college because why the hell not? I’ve always found the body kind of “cool” I guess.

Because I was living at home and there wasn’t really much else to do, I even started working out a little bit. I eventually lost 50 pounds I think? Still not in a “great” place mentally, but I guess we’re making progress. The thing is, life does this funny this where as soon as you think things are going well, boom.

I was actually making taking care of one of my patients when a another nurse ran in the room with a worried face and said, “Cody you need to call your mom right now.”

I kept my phone on silent while working for obvious reasons, so when I opened my phone for the first time, it was full of missed calls and “call me now” messages. I called my mom and right away, I knew something was terribly wrong.

“Cody, don’t freak out but your dad had a heart attack.”

Lester Alan Taggart – August 24, 1954 – July 28, 2014

Typing this, my hands are shaking and my eyes have teared up because I remember that feeling so vividly. It was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. I don’t want to exclude anybody, but I think it’s only something those who lost a parent at younger age know (I could be wrong on that.)

That was the point I knew that life wasn’t for me. I decided I was done. I just didn’t try anymore. I don’t care about school, I started to put weight back on, and two weeks later on my 21st birthday, I stuck my dad’s loaded gun to my head.

Love is the reason I’m still here. As weird as that sounds, it’s true. When I was a centimeter away from ending my own life, the only thing I thought about was my mom. I thought about the pain she felt losing her husband, I thought about the pain she was fighting through. There was no way I could do that to her.

I wish I could tell you something along the lines of “from that point on I turned my life around and it was great.” But the truth is that it wasn’t. Life still sucked. I still felt like I was in a pit of despair, I still wanted to die, I had just decided not to at that point.

The truth about loss is that you’ll grieve forever. You probably won’t “get over” the loss of a loved one. That pain will always peek its head in the door. You’ll just learn to live with it.

But what I know now is that you heal. You rebuild yourself around the loss. You won’t be the same, but you shouldn’t want to be. If you went back to the same you, that would mean that person didn’t have a significant place in your life.

Eventually, I got back to working out. I lost some weight again. I was down 100 pounds now. I still didn’t have any career prospects, so I decided to start personal training as a side gig to pay some bills. For the first time in my life, I genuinely enjoyed my job. Sure, there are not-so-great parts, every job has those. But overall, I actually enjoyed personal training.

I worked as the “master trainer” at an LA Fitness in Detroit (fancy title, I know) for a year before one of my best friends Ollie Joseph asked me to move to LA with him while he pursued his music career. I enjoyed what I was doing in Detroit, but it didn’t seem like there were as many opportunities there.

I decided to move with him even though we didn’t have any money, no clients, no car, no apartment, you know the typical “LA” story. I applied and landed a job at Equinox Hollywood as a trainer because I thought, “Hey! Equinox! Money!” There were challenges of course, but it was of the mindset, “look at everything else I’ve already made it through. I’m going to be okay.” I am incredibly grateful for everyone I met there. I found my “LA family” there, I grew as a trainer, and I found a little confidence.

I started talking about my story a little more. I was open about my depression, anxiety, and the demons I still face today. I enjoyed learning more about the body and exercise. I was fascinated with the mind. I eventually built a clientele that to be honest with you, feels more like family at this point. I eventually started training a few celebrities including one of my now best friends in Kalen Allen. Before COVID, we started an event simply called “hike with friends” on the first Sunday of every month. The very first one had 12 people I think? The last one before the virus we had 100+ people show up and it was even featured on Access Hollywood. I started to grow a little following?

We started doing more projects where we raise money for various causes and individuals. In the last three years, the community we’ve built has raised $30,000 towards mental health support, we’ve raised $4,500 for a young woman chasing her dream, we’ve raised thousands of dollars for a family that lost their home from a fire, the list goes on and on.

I’ve launched my baby in New Story Market where I want to challenge the way many view mental health. The unfortunate truth is suicide is still the 10th highest killer in the US, so we save 10% of all profits we make from the clothing and with that, every year we’re going to throw a mental health “festival” (after COVID, obviously.) I want to offer a space where we can laugh together, dance together, eat together, we’ll have speakers, games, food, music, but most importantly, we’re going to bring people together. Like I said earlier, love is the only reason I’m here today. I want to build a community just so people know that they are loved. That they belong.

If I’m being transparent with you, I’m struggling with the “end” of this novel I just wrote you. I’d like to tell you that everything is all sunshine and rainbows, but that would be dishonest. Overall, yes I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m proud to say that. But I’d always read inspirational stories with a “happily ever after” ending and wondered if that was actually the case. I don’t believe it is.

I think it’s important to note that even though somebody appears to be “successful,” sometimes shit is still really, really hard. I constantly fight with imposter syndrome, I still have days where I can’t leave my couch because the depression is crippling. But that doesn’t define who you are. You can be “successful” and struggle. You can have anxiety and appear confident. It’s not the end of your story.

I don’t really know where I’m going with my story either. I don’t have a five years plan or anything like that. I’m just doing what feels right and I’m trying to help as many people as I can along the way.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Long story short: Grew up an overweight, depressed kid in Michigan. Our family didn’t come from money, we got kicked out of house after house and eventually ended up homeless. I tried to mask my depression with food and alcohol. I grew to 320 pounds in college. I flunked out of said college. Fast forward a few years later, and my dad passed away from a heart attack. 2 weeks later, I tried to take my own life. Over time, I’ve lost 120 pounds, moved from Detroit to LA, started chasing my passion in eliminating the stigma surrounding mental health, started to train celebrities, launched a clothing brand, and even though I still have my days, I’m happier than I’ve ever been.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Professionally, my priorities are becoming the best personal trainer I can be in order to serve my clients and continue to grow New Story Market building one of the most supportive communities in the world.

Training-wise, I think people tend to believe in me because my approach is a little different than what some people think of when they think “personal trainer.” That “rah-rah” gym bro just isn’t who I am. Believe me, I tried. I tend to focus more on the emotional and behavioral side of improving your health. Yes, working out is part of the equation, but there is so much more to getting healthy. It’s not as simple as sending macros and telling somebody to exercise 5 times a week. You have to dig deeper.

You have to make your mental health a priority. You have to have meaningful relationships in your life. You need to create an environment that sets you up for success. You have to prioritize your emotional health. You have to find some “meaning” in your life. Health is more than just having nice abs.

I really don’t think I’m reinventing the wheel or anything with fitness, I’m just telling it my own way. I believe I connect with a lot of people because I’m honest. I try my hardest to be transparent. I don’t promote any ridiculous detoxes or diets, I promote consistency over rigidity. I promote chasing health over aesthetics (the aesthetics will follow) I promote improving your health as a form of self-love instead of a form of self-hate. I think that’s different from what we’ve been fed over the years. I think it’s refreshing for people to hear. That’s it.

I push people to grow. But in order for people to grow, they need to be accepted for who they are right then and there. If you don’t do that, then it’s going a lot harder for them to become who they were meant to be.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I kid you not, when I moved to LA, I sent a DM to every celebrity, influencer, blogger, etc. that I could find. I believed in my product, but I needed people to take a chance on me. So, I kept pumping out information that I thought others may find helpful, I kept on working at my craft, and I just kept getting in front of as many people as I possibly could. Eventually, I got in front of enough people, they believed in me and started to refer friends, therefore my business grew.

So I think luck is a factor here. While I’m all for taking control of your own life and making your own opportunities, It just takes one person or one opportunity to change your entire life. You never really know when that opportunity is going to come either. That’s the fun thing about life. I guess that means my advice is, keep working on your craft, have good character, be a person of integrity, keep getting in front of people, and even if you don’t know if you’re “ready” have enough faith in yourself to figure it out along the way.

Contact Info:

• Email: training@codytaggart.com
• Website: codytaggart.com
• Instagram: @cody_taggart
• Twitter: @cody_taggart

Image Credits:
@MarcColcer for all shots but transformation picture