In 2011 I was working as a teacher in a public school in Harlem. I loved working with kids, but I was not a fan of working in a school. Most New York City public schools have a singular focus of making sure kids pass their state reading and math tests. I personally cared more for the development of the students.
Many of the kids I taught were living in homeless shelters that have horrible living conditions. The school I taught in was chaotic. I witnessed multiple kids get handcuffed during school hours and taken to jail. I saw our principal walk off the job one day. I saw 6th graders smoking Black & Milds before school.
I remember a time in the winter when it was about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, a student walked into school with shorts on and a fleece sweater. I asked him, “Why are you wearing shorts?” he replied back to me, “We just moved from Florida and my baby sister gets all the attention.” Meaning, pants and a jacket weren’t affordable for his family. I had no idea what to say to him, and I did what I could to help. I made sure that he got extra food while he was in the school building. I also addressed the issue with our schools leadership, but nothing happened.
I get it…its complicated. But it’s not right. There had to be more we could do to help these kids. At the time, all of these issues stressed me out, but it fueled a small fire in me to be in a position to do more. I felt at odds…I thought teaching was going to be my way of making an impact in my community, but I quickly realized that teaching kids to pass a test was not for me.
I felt a deep stirring inside of me that it was time to do something else. I had no idea what something else was. At the time, the only other good thing I had going for myself was that I liked to work out. I had become so good at it that people started asking me to train them and many people came to work out with me to learn. One day, a friend told me I should apply to work in a gym as a trainer. I applied to three gyms, and one called me back. After an intense interview process, Equinox Fitness Club on Wall Street hired me in June 2012.
I’ll never forget those initial few months because it was very challenging. Training in a big gym is a commission based job, so if you don’t have clients, you don’t make money. The learning curve was steep. The hours were long, most days I was at the gym from 5:30am until 9pm. Some days I wouldn’t have enough money to go home during the day when I wasn’t training, so I would lay towels on the bathroom floor and take a quick power nap to try to make it the rest of the day. I remember thinking how tough it was…how I left my job teaching for this. I thought, I should have paid more attention in college. Clearly I missed something. I also didn’t want my parents to know how bad it was because I didn’t want to hear “I told you so.” I have great parents, but they were not thrilled at first about me leaving my teaching job to become a personal trainer!
Despite all of the chaos and long hours, I made a commitment to myself to see this through. As I type this, I have been at the same club for 6 years. I’m proud of myself for pushing through, but I always knew I would come back to work that impacted my community, and it wasn’t until this year that I knew what that work would be.
I wanted to share some moments captured along the way that ultimately led to the creation of Strategy. These notes are just glimpses into thought and ideas I have had over the past six years that have developed into what Strategy is today. Yes, there are typos and incomplete thoughts…but when I wrote these, I never intended on sharing them.
November 7, 2012: At the moment I wrote this, Superstorm Sandy had ripped through lower Manhattan. My club was out of service for 10 days…I started to realize I really wanted financial stability.
Side Note: My first name for my business idea was “Zample”. Don’t make fun of me!
In 2014, I changed the name to MentalShift.
December 2014: I had just completed my first year of competitive bodybuilding and won first place in the most important show I had competed in that year.
2015: At this point I had purchased a website domain, but mentally I couldn’t move past not having financial stability. I started to feel that deep stirring again that this website was going to be more than a fitness website, but again, I didn’t know what that was.
June 2015: The last idea I came up with before completely leaving it alone for 3 years was “Xavier Ifill, Changing Lives” (See Logo below)
So I sat on this website for 3 years. I made payments every month, but I didn’t develop a single page. In fact, whenever I would start I would just leave more frustrated.
I payed $30/month for 3 years and not a single page was developed. That’s $1,080 plus the cost of the domain. I had been concerned about financial stability, but I spent $1,100 on a website that I had no idea what I was going to do with it. Nor did I have money to blow.
Between 2015-2018, I went on a faith journey, not because I was told to, but through my own curiosity. When I started bodybuilding, I had to cut out all of the things that I used to numb myself, alcohol, partying, late nights…my life flipped upside down and all of my free time became working out, meal prepping, and sleeping. I believed in God, but I hadn’t ever taken time to develop a relationship with him, or to see what the Bible actually says about who God is. Once I was left without distractions and vices, I was left with me and God. I started to seek him, my faith grew, and so did my dream.
January 2018: I was chasing a dream that I didn’t actually know where it was leading me. I prayed and asked God to tell me what He wanted me to do with this website. I wrote the prayer below. And for 4 months, I got nothing…great.
April 2018: I started to have some clarity about using my website for something new and different, but I still didn’t know what that was.
It wasn’t until I started to plan my bachelor party that it hit me. This is what this site was made for.
May 22, 2018: A website devoted to developing men.
July 15, 2018: Started construction on the website.
August 24, 2018: The Bachelor Party
October 15, 2018: Strategy was launched.
This journey has been all over the map, but I know God’s hand is in this, and its something that is so needed in our current culture. Everything I have done up until this point has led me to developing Strategy. My teaching experience, coaching and training, and all of the volunteer work in men’s specific programs has equipped me to make a positive impact in men’s lives.
Many aspects of my previous notes about my dream are still accurate, just under this new lense of bringing others to pursuing their own God-dream and living in God’s best for them. I’m excited for what’s next.
Stay tuned…