Each week I interview a REAL someone who has successfully Made The Jump from day job to business bod. Meet Andrew Mckee,  founder of Personally Trained. Any questions? Add a comment below!

Before the Jump

My background is I grew up on Sydney’ Northern Beaches, well educated, come from a good solid family, both parents worked hard, provided idealic lifestyle for us. I left school and started working within 2 days. Always wanted to follow in my fathers footsteps of successful business career, wanted to be in leadership positions and enjoyed working amongst a strong team. My career started as a Junior Clerk in a National Business and progressed to a marketing role. From there I moved into a sales support role supporting on road sales people working for Optus in the start up days. My roles have always been sales support/sales/marketing focused. From there I moved to the video games industry and as sales rep on the road, then to National Account Manager managing retail business of $120million. After 3 years I moved into IT security sales working in the consumer division for multinational. I did this role for two different organisations culminating in the position of Sales Director for APAC managing entire consumer business. This role resulted in lots of travel, high pay and very little down time. Being constantly away for work it made it very difficult to keep relationships, not limited to just a partner but also friends and family. For the majority of my career I loved what I did, I loved the people I worked with, the customers I had and the results that I achieved. I have worked for some big brands – Optus, Electronic Arts, Sony PlayStation, McAfee and Zone Alarm. I enjoyed my roles in the later part of my corporate career because they were relationship based sales – not direct selling.

Why the Jump?

What prompted me to begin to consider changing was that with all the travel and the constant work I found I was doing was that my health deteriorated. My weight blew out to 146kg. I was on a flight to San Francisco and I had been upgraded to business class. I was so overweight I almost didn’t comfortably fit in the business class seat. That was the reality check I needed. I came home from that trip and enlisted the services of a personal trainer. I trained with him 3 days a week for 3 years and worked very hard to get my weight under control. I quickly realised it wasn’t just about exercising that I needed to fix it was also some psychological things I had to attend to as well. So he and I worked hard on both the physical and mental challenges and we achieved my goal which was 100kg. I started to the realise how much I was inspired by my trainer that I thought I would like to try my hand at training and have the same if not more impact on someone else. My work at ZoneAlarm had changed drastically. The company had made some decisions that I didn’t believe in and I was no longer enjoying the role so it seemed like a perfect time to leave and pursue what was going to make me happy. It took 6 months after I left ZoneALarm to complete my qualifications and start my business. I didn’t only leave corp I left the lifestyle behind too. I sold my $million property, my bmw and numerous other material possessions I has amassed over the years. It was a really cathartic experience.

The Business

My current business is called Personally Trained. It is an outdoor personal training company based on Sydneys northern beaches. I help people get fit, lose weight and rebuild themselves. Business has been up and running for just over a year and the business is doing well. I chose to open a PT business because I saw an opportunity as an ex corp high achiever who had let their health suffer due to their career that there is a market for trainers who were real people who had experience with the pressures of work, life and balancing everything. I had had trainers in the past who didn’t have the life experience and therefore I didn’t train with them for more that 6-12months. Most of my clients have been with me for a year and the new clients I am picking up are coming on as a result of reading my story, relating to it, being inspired by it and understand that I am a trainer who can make a difference for them as I have walked in similar footsteps to them. I chose this because I am passionate about helping people. After seeing the negative effects a corp career can have on an individual and a family I want to help others have been lives and as well help reduce the obesity epidemic in this country.

How Hard Was The Jump?

The transition was not too hard except adjusting to the lack of funds coming in to begin with. After 20 years of getting paid every month without fail to now having to collect money and budget weekly it was a little culture shock. But it has made me realise I am a lot happier with a lot less! Yes I was very fearful as I was not sure it was going to work or whether I was a good enough trainer but everyday I get validation from my clients how good they find the training is and I see the changes in them which for me is invaluable!

Best and Worst Things About The Jump?

Bes thing is being your own boss and being able to set everything up your own way. Not having to do things because someone else set it up or “coz that’s the way we do it” mentality you get in some large organisations. Worst thing is being the whole business and things sometimes fall through the cracks and you have no one to blame except yourself. Honestly there isn’t a worst thing, its the best thing I ever did!