Meet TJ Simmons | Online Personal Trainer

We had the good fortune of connecting with TJ Simmons and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi TJ, what do you want your legacy to be?
A lot of personal trainers get into personal training wanting to make a lot of money, get a lot of followers/become Instagram famous, or get sponsorships and endorsements from fitness companies. There are very few people who genuinely get into personal training to really help people. This is what I want my legacy to be and what I want people to remember me for. I pride myself in helping people to change their lives. Seeing clients being able to fit into clothes they haven’t been able to fit in years or hearing about how their current clothes are falling off of them because they are so loose, truly makes me so happy. Being able to help people feel good about themselves and help them to gain their confidence back brings so much fulfillment to me. I want people to remember me as someone who truly enjoyed helping others to become the best version of themselves. My job is to give people the tools and support they need a long their fitness journey and to ultimately get them results. During this process, I get to follow people throughout their journey and it is because of this that it makes it even more special when they have finally reached their goals. I get to see them not just at the finish line when they have won, but I an able to experience the entire journey with them through all the highs and lows. A lot of the time people just see the wins and the end results, but nobody sees or knows all the hard work that was put into getting the results that led to the victory. I get to experience this with my clients and it makes the wins so much more special. I want people to remember me as someone who not only loved helping people, but someone who was always there for every part of the journey and not just at the finish line.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I am an online personal trainer and the name of my business is, Lets Be Great Fitness. I love online personal training much better than in person training because I can offer more services and hold my clients more accountable. With in person training you are mostly putting your clients through workouts and that’s about it. Once they leave you and that gym the support and accountability is gone. With online personal training my clients are able to have access to me 24/7 through my app. I am also able to see everything they are eating and making sure they are following their meal plan, as well as making sure they are completing all of the workouts that I give them. With in person training, clients and I have to worry about scheduling the right time to come in and work out. With online personal training, clients can work out any time of the day that best suits them and avoid scheduling conflicts. I feel what sets me apart from other online personal trainers is that I really pride myself on fully being with my clients throughout their entire journey. A lot of online personal trainer will just give clients a pdf meal plan and training plan and that is it, if anything they will have check-ins once a week. I on the other hand talk to my clients multiple times throughout the week and make myself available to them in order to have a real personal 1 on 1 relationship with all of them. To say that starting my online personal training business has been easy would be a lie. I have went through a lot of trial and error and there were so many things that I did not know went into starting a business. One thing I will say is that starting a business is hard, but if you are passionate about it and believe in what you are doing then you will not mind putting the necessary work in. One thing I always find my self saying is, “Lets Be Great. ” This is essentially why I named my business, Lets Be Great Fitness. I want us all to be great, not just average or good, but great. We all have greatness in us, its just getting it out by pushing and challenging ourselves. You will never know how great you can be until you get out of your comfort zone and truly push yourself. I don’t just want to get my clients great results, I want to help them become the best version of themselves and find their greatness!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I currently live in Maryland but I am very close to the DC area. DC has some of the best museums and a lot of people come from all over the country just to visit the museums. So, if you have never been to any of the museums in DC, I highly recommend you go see a few. Maryland is known for its crabs and have some of the best crabs by far. If you are into seafood and love crabs there are a couple of very good crab places you can go to. I personally love the all you can eat crab buffets and can easily be there for about 4-5 hours eating crabs. If you are in DC and have never been, you have to go to Bens Chilli Bowl. It is basically a DC landmark and any and every celebrity that has came to DC has been there. They serve some of the best hot dogs you will ever have. If you are big into sports then you literally have so many options. Both DC and Baltimore have so many sport teams from the Wizards and the Mystics, to the Ravens or Washington Football Team, to the Nationals or Orioles, and you even have the Washington Capitals. The National Harbor in Maryland has everything you need in one place from restaurants, bars, hotels, paddle boats, boat tours, and there is even an MGM Casino there with even more restaurants and bars inside. The National Harbor is by the water and has a huge Ferris Wheel that is open all year round, I highly recommend checking it out. There is so much to do in the Maryland and DC area.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My shoutout goes to my wife Kiara. My wife saw my passion for fitness years ago and encouraged me to follow that passion. There were numerous times where I second guessed myself and my abilities. There were also times where I would try to talk myself out of fully perusing personal training from the fear of it not possibly working out. My wife was the one that pushed me to get out of my own head and to stop self sabotaging myself and my future dreams. We all need that person in our life that will help us get out of our own way to reach our full potential. For me that person is my wife. Without her constant support and advice I would not be where I am today.

Website: letsbegreatfitness.net

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letsbegreatfitness/?hl=en

Facebook: facebook.com/letsbegreatfitness