I’m thirty-one years old and since the age of thirteen, I've been trying to replicate the Spartans' way of life into an ethos that both transcends time and applies functionally to our modern-day world. When I was 21 I first asked myself what to tangibly do with this philosophy that

was so dear to me and two years later settled on writing a book(s) to commemorate my heroes. The next half decade was history. I spent every waking moment utterly obsessed with the goal of

writing and publishing this first book in what I envisioned as a six-part series

that would take a fictional look at the Spartans from their golden age to their decline and fall. In August 2020, "Defiance," the first installment in "An Eternal Truth," was published and I am currently writing the second.

The other pillar of my life has been athletics/fitness. I found my athletic passion as a child in baseball and after playing at an elite level through high school, left the sport behind to focus on academia. But athleticism is in my blood (my father played baseball in college, his father was offered a professional baseball contract, and my grandmother was an elite basketball player) and I couldn't just leave it behind. Right after I gave up baseball, I started lifting seriously, then found Crossfit a couple years later, which led me to the other great endeavor of my yet young life, my goal to win the Crossfit Games and win the crown of Fittest on Earth. I dove headlong into this pursuit right after publishing my first book, and gave an equal amount of my heart to it, until I finally decided to step away from it two and a half years later.

Toward the end of my competitive venture, I

found my niche as a personal trainer, something I had always been encouraged to do but spurned in favor of my

own personal achievements and “greatness”. Here I am two plus

years later and have come to understand that it is an integral part (maybe even the most important part) of building the Spartan vision I've had since I was just a kid. If I truly want to teach the Spartan way, a large part of doing so is in helping people find elite

fitness. It is far from the entire equation but in order to forge Spartans I must first forge unshakable physicality. So, I hope that as both a coach who can forge elite fitness and an author who can aptly tell the Spartans' story, I can execute this vision of mine into something

tangible which has the potential to make a real mark.