Thriving Student: Wyatt Dickinson

Pretty much the moment Wyatt had access to a weight room, he was hooked.In his freshman year of highschool he joined the track-and-field and football teams. But towards 10th grade he found himself hitting the weightroom instead of attending practice.

“My Coach said to me, ‘if I catch you skipping practice for the weight room, you’ll be kicked off the team’.”

And that’s exactly what happened.

Yet, Wyatt didn’t care. He was far too excited about lifting weights, and the changes he could see in his own body. Not to mention the attention he was getting from girls.

In his senior year of highschool, he decided to give a bodybuilding competition a try. “I figured, I’m not on any teams right now, I have extra time, so why not give it a try.”

At that time, the sport wasn’t considered cool, says Wyatt. “It wasn’t nearly as popular then as it is now. It was actually kinda taboo because you’re standing up there in a banana hammock, practically nude.” But he did it anyway, and loved it.

Bodybuilding led to personal training.

After graduation, Wyatt continued bodybuilding. More and more people started asking him questions, like ‘‘what did he do to look like that?’, ‘What was his fitness routine?’, And even, ‘would he train them?’.

In 2011, Wyatt decided to give online training a try, starting with a friend who wanted Wyatt to train him through his first bodybuilding competition. But things didn’t go as smoothly as hoped. “It was definitely a hassle. I send him an email then he sends me an email back, and so on.”

Wyatt still wasn’t a certified personal trainer but more and more people asked for his help. So he got his certification, quit his job at the pharmacy and started working in a local gym.

Life on the gym floor took over.

Wyatt enjoyed personal training but didn’t click with the gym clientele. “The people were more interested in talking rather than being serious about their training,” he explains.

He also suffered some of the typical pitfalls of training in person: high client turnover, and the kind of schedule that starts at 6am and ends late into the evening.

As you might expect, that meant there was no time for bodybuilding competitions. Heck, there was barely enough time for his own workouts, let alone the time required to travel, prep food, get adequate sleep, and all the other requirements of the physique athlete.

Online training might be the solution — if he could find a better way of doing it.

“Before, I had no systems in place. I was doing it all on email, my communication was disorganized, and I was overcomplicating it.”

When Wyatt found the Online Trainer Academy he thought it seemed promising, but he was hesitant. “I waited, I was on the fence. I missed the early bird special, and I actually signed up the last night that it was open. Finally, I figured, what the heck.”

His leap of faith paid off. The systems of the Academy kept things simple, and were effective for Wyatt right out of the gate. “I had no idea these systems existed,” he says. “It made everything organized, and a lot quicker.”

Better still, “I got a few clients in the first week or so. That got me really excited,” he says.

Now, Wyatt’s gone back to competing, because he finally has the freedom to do so.

“When you’re an online trainer, you can still work with people when you’re out of town. You have a lot more availability than you’d have in a regular job. This has allowed me to compete again.”

He admits that he was starting to wonder if it was ever going to be possible. “Before I found online training, I was considering becoming an accountant as my fall-back. Even though it’s the opposite of what I’d love.”

Instead, Wyatt gets to do work he truly enjoys, and pursue his passion for bodybuilding.