Ready for a surprise?!
FITLETE is a one man show. From start to finish George is the eyes, ears, brains, successes and mistakes behind all of FITLETE.
Hey! I'm George Pagan III, a full-time self employed personal trainer working in Miami, Florida. I am also the brainchild behind everything that is FITLETE.
I am thrifty & HATE INEFFICIENCY, just hate it!
It means I'm wasting valuable time, exhaustive effort, & sometimes a lot money. It's a foolish struggle, and a combination of the being thrifty and efficient are a the core of my personality. FITLETE is "cooked" with the same recipe.
I'm originally from upstate New York and graduated from Westfield State University in Massachusetts with a concentration in sports medicine and exercise sciences. I was supposed to graduate in 2009, but after a difficult freshman year I switched majors from business administration to the Movement Sciences track. Despite the immense amount of doubt expressed to me by my new academic advisor I continued on. Westfield was a great experience. I formed some lifelong friendships and developed a relationship with a girl that would be an unwavering positive impact to my life.
After graduating I didn't have a specific direction I wanted to take my career. I just knew I had to start working, and began gaining experience in any field possible around the industry. I simultaneously worked for a small owner operated 1-2-1 studio in Bergen County New Jersey, an outpatient physical therapy clinic in Rockland County, NY, a local fitness & racquet club in Dutchess County New York , and continued my volunteer coaching with the youth football program I grew up in Orange County New York. I was all over the place geographically and mentally.
After a year or so I wanted some college strength & conditioning experience that was sparsely available in my current location. I started applying for unpaid volunteer & post graduate internships as a college strength coach. I didn't have any experience with this process and my personal & professional contacts at this time were not able to provide any assistance. To my surprise I applied and reached out to close to 80 school programs before hearing back with any positive news. This long process eventually(surprisingly) opened an opportunity to intern at Florida Atlantic University(FAU) for their late summer and fall term. If I jumped at this chance my income would drop from a stable growing nest egg down to $0.00 for almost half a year, and my 2.5 hour long distance relationship would now become a distance that literally spanned the entire east coast of the US. I jumped. Without question the experience was worth it. With the help of my Uncle I was able to secure FREE housing in Kendall Miami which was about a 50 minute drive to Boca Raton(FAU) at 3am, and a 2-3 hour drive back during the evening rush hour. On some of the later nights it made more sense to stay in Boca and sleep in my Honda Accord. Halfway through this experience I tore my ACL performing a drill(#NaturalAthlete) for the softball team. I wasn't the best intern that ever lived, but I did enjoy "being a strength coach" it just wasn't enough to continue pursuing it for a career. When December came I had to return to New York to have surgery on my torn ACL, and eventually figure out my next move.
I liked South Florida even though I was no closer to the answer I hoped to find gaining this experience. My girlfriend was finishing her Masters degree in Occupational Therapy and took her final clinical rotation with a coveted hand specialist in South Miami! She moved down first, and once I was progressed enough in my rehab I filled my Accord to the roof and began the journey to "a new home". In the span of only a few months we went from being long distance for over 2 years to sharing a 550sqrft apartment. We eloped a few years later, and are still together to this day.
and I've been a working as an independent personal trainer ever since. Unfortunately, this move opened my eyes a bit wider to some of the major pain points of the industry. As professionals we seem to be pointlessly dogmatic, isolated between specialties, being left behind using truly innovative technologies, and full of difficulties finding continuing education opportunities. Being new to an area was both personally and professionally isolating, and I had to do something before I lost my mind.
So, I started FITLETE to build my own projects that allow for easy access to continuing education no matter where you are in the world, a seamless flow between specialties, and find like-minded colleagues to collaborate with.