About Coach Dusty
I Know What It Feels Like to Feel Stuck
I’ve spent more than fourteen years helping people become stronger in ways they never thought possible. The most important lessons I’ve learned about strength didn’t come from a certification, a textbook, or a gym. They came from times in my own life when I felt lost, trapped, uncertain, and unsure of what came next.
I know what it’s like to struggle with motivation. I know what it;s like to look at your life and realize something needs to change while having no idea where to begin. And I know what it’s like to fight battles inside yourself that the people around you may never fully see.
Those experiences changed the way I look at fitness, and the way I work with people. Sometimes what looks like a lack of discipline from the outside is really someone who is exhausted, overwhelmed, discouraged, or simply trying to survive. I believe those people still deserve someone in their corner.
More Than Fourteen Years in Fitness
My Career in health and fitness began during my six years in the military, where I worked as a diet therapist, which was really a glorified cook. Since then, I’ve spent more than fourteen years as a personal trainer. I’ve worked in just about every kind of fitness environment you can imagine, from big-box gyms to operating my own personal training studio. Over the years, I’ve worked with people from all walks of life, with different bodies, different goals, different limitations, and very different definitions of success. My experiences eventually led me beyond traditional personal training.
Today, I’m a trauma-informed personal trainer and a trauma informed manifestation coach, as well as a published author and public speaker. I know some of it may sound a bit woo woo, but despite all those titles, what I do really comes down to something much simpler: I help people find a way forward.
Fitness Is Personal
I don’t believe people need another person standing over them telling them they aren’t trying hard enough. Most people already know what they should be doing. The difficult part is figuring out how to actually do it when life is messy. When motivation disappears. When you’re overwhelmed. When your confidence is gone. When you’ve started over more times than you can count. Or when the version of fitness everyone tells you that you’re supposed to follow simply doesn’t fit your life. That’s why I meet people where they are. Sometimes progress means getting stronger in the gym. Sometimes it means simply taking a ten minute walk and proving t yourself that you can begin again. There is no shame in starting where you are. That’s the only place any of us can start.
The Philosophy of Being Nobody
My own hardships eventually forced me to question many things I believed about success, identity, strength, failure, and who I thought I was supposed to become. Out of that struggle, I began developing my own personal philosophy. That philosophy eventually became my book, The Philosophy of Being Nobody. At the center of it is a simple idea. We spend much of our lives trying to become somebody. Sometimes freedom begins when we stop being so afraid of being nobody.
Becoming “Nobody” isn’t about believing that you have no value. it’s almost the opposite. It’s about loosening your grip on the identities, expectations, failures, fears, and stories that tell you who you are supposed to be. It’s about learning to meet yourself where you actually are. To become more aware. To let go of what you cannot control. And then to deliberately choose what comes next. These ideas helped me navigate some of the hardest periods of my own life. They continue to shape the way I live, the way I train, and the way I work with other people.
If you want to understand that philosophy more deeply, you can read The Philosophy of Being Nobody. You don’t have to believe everything I believe to work with me. My job isn’t to turn you into me. It’s to help you discover what becoming stronger looks like for you.
You Don’t Have to Fight Alone
I know What it feels like to believe you should be able to handle everything yourself. I also know how lonely that can become. You may be reading this because something in your life needs to change. Maybe you’ve lost motivation. Maybe you don’t recognize yourself anymore.Maybe you’ve spent years taking care of everyone else while slowly putting yourself further down the list. Maybe you’ve tried diets, workout programs, challenges, apps, and you’re tired of feeling like you’re the problem when you can’t stick with them. Or maybe you simply know there is another version of your life waiting for you, and you’re ready to start moving toward it.
Whatever brought you here, I won’t promise you an overnight transformation. I won’t promise that changing your life will always be easy. And I won’t ask you to pretend that everything is okay when it isn’t. What I can offer is experience, patience, support, and someone willing to meet you where you are while helping you move toward where you want to be. I had to find my own way out of places where I felt trapped. That’s one of the reasons this work matters so much to me. Because If you’re fighting your own battle right now, there is something I want you to know: You don’t have to fight alone. Lets figure out your next step together.