Born and raised in Surrey, BC, a lot of my early adolescence was spent watching my parents work hard to try and not only provide for me and my brother but give me the opportunities they felt I deserved. At the same time, I was starting to discover my love for fitness and sports. I still continue to not only challenge my own fitness level but have gone on to coach at high levels of soccer while also receiving my personal training certification. Completing my PT courses ultimately enabled me to launch my first business that had been in the works since 2011, Torrid Athletics. This was my personal training company that later, went on to become an athletic clothing brand. Through this experience and lots of late nights + early mornings, I was able to learn the in and outs of online branding, advertising, e-commerce, website creation, social media tactics, and much more. While sales were strong in my hometown and around the way, I got busy with other priorities such as playing on the men’s soccer team at Capilano University. This commitment, paired with school and work, as well as a thorough analysis of the clothing industry drove me to drop the company and peruse other opportunities.
From here, I was in a place where I had a good understanding of business practices and felt that, because I had done many online courses and applied them in Torrid Athletic operations, I was ready to start something that I could always have on the side. For me, this was soccer. My passion for the game drove me to not only push myself but to push others around me. I was hard on my teams at times but all the players and parents knew that it was for the right reasons. Perhaps this is why many of the kids I coached, not only looked up to me as a mentor but understand how much respect I gave them for always understanding what I expected out of them. I went on to run many private sport related programs for all athletes. This continued until August 2018, when I tore my ACL and Meniscus. The injury was painful but it was more painful to watch teams that I played with progress to national championships and win them without my presence. I was hyped for both teams competing on the national stage, but disappointed that I could not be there to experience it with either of them.
Recovery was hard and a long process that consisted of nearly 12 months. For nearly a month after the injury and a month after surgery I was stuck in bed. Eventually, I had watched everything their was to watch on Netflix, Amazon video, and YouTube. While everyone around me was telling me to rest and relax, all I was thinking about was my next move. With more time on my hands then I had in a while, I turned my attention to school, which was often swept under the carpet. Though my grades are definitely above average, I had nothing else to focus my mind on for the first time in 2 years. I could not push myself to become a better athlete, coach, or business owner. All I had was a healing ACL, my laptop, and a bed to lay in.
It was back to square one. I took out the laptop and started watching some videos about marketing as that’s what I was taking in school. I convinced myself that the reason I had turned Torrid Athletics into a clothing brand was because ultimately I wanted to market something bigger then me. A few hundred videos later, my love for marketing was born. As I started to explore many aspects of what marketing actually was, I realized the world was shifting from marketing being one entity to it being a divided yet a well synchronized machine. After exploring for weeks on end, I went on to start many of my own pages for every little thing that I had my hands in. At this point I started to see the bigger picture. After a few months of ongoing trial and error, as well as learning marketing, basic photography and video from online courses, I was ready to start helping some real businesses produce content but more importantly, build brand.
My goal now is to inspire, motivate, and educate businesses on how to leverage new generation marketing tactics to build brand identity. I am skilled in Social Media Management, Content Creation, Branding, Advertising and have been independently learning and practicing marketing techniques for the past 4 years while continuing studies at Capilano University.