Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Chiara.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Everyone has a dream growing up. Mine was to play professional baseball. I never thought about college or a backup plan. I practiced endlessly and gave my heart and soul to the game. In middle school, I tried out for the team and got cut on the last day of tryouts. It killed my self-confidence because it just compounded on the fact that I was already the skinny kid, who got picked on for being thin.
A couple of years later during summer vacation, I went with my family to the beach. I was sitting in the sand when I saw a man in his thirties. He was extremely fit, six-pack and all; an absolute specimen. But what stood out the most to me, was the way he carried himself. He walked with a self-assured swagger. Something compelled me to go up to him and say, “Excuse me, I was wondering how you got that fit?”
The fit man graciously shared his story. He was an athlete like myself and was cut from several teams because of his size and his lack of strength. The real kicker was that he was also bullied in school for his frame. This was mind-blowing to me. Here was this guy who had been through exactly what I was still going through, and the best part was that the fire didn’t leave him burned or scarred, but rather, forged into iron.
I absorbed every word he said like a sponge. From that day on, I was all in on health and fitness. That five-minute conversation changed everything for me. I started working out each day at the local YMCA. At first, I had no idea what I was doing. My road was long, my progress was slow. Nobody in my family lifted weights or had a deep well of knowledge about health and fitness to draw from. I just knew I had seen a blueprint for how to improve my life. I needed to implement everything the fit man from the beach had told me, so that I could improve myself as an athlete, along with being able to tap into all the world has to offer.
A few years after my journey towards becoming my best self physically, and mentally began, I ended up seeing radical change. Girls started hitting on me, people were asking me for advice — life was great. Then, I started having back issues, which was a huge reason I stopped playing baseball. This led me straight into my career in health, wellness, and fitness. As I pushed my body, I began pushing my mind as well. I worked to expand and sharpen every aspect of my life by reading books, attending seminars, investing in programs that were going to allow me to grow as a human being.
After experiencing the impact fitness had on my life from boosting my confidence to healing my back injury, I decided I wanted to dip my toes into personal training. Early on, everyone told me that it was a bad career choice. They would usually tell me there was no money in it, or that people don’t need that service. My heart was told me otherwise. Making people’s lives better through the beautiful labor of working out and the discipline of refining their habits was my calling. I knew it was going to be difficult to break into the fitness industry and it would take time to build a name for myself, but I loved gaining the knowledge and experience that comes through training.
As I worked to raise myself up, I was met with resistance. Along with diving into the fitness world, I went head first into the network marketing industry. As a whole, the industry gets a bad rap because of a few of the major companies that have been built into empires on sleazy pyramid schemes. My goal was learning how to sell, to build a tribe of ambitious peers, and to improve my networking skills. But momentum towards one thing will mean encountering friction. Another way of putting it that you have probably heard before is that things get worse before they get better. Someone spray-painted my car to literally tell me, “You will never be successful.” At the time, it hurt and was pretty embarrassing, frankly. But I knew I wanted to continue to grow as a person, help others, and to find a way to make a living doing what I love.
Four years, fifty clients and a collective 1,000 pounds of total weight loss later, I’m still here, still learning, still in love with watching my clients flourish. Helping people with their health and fitness is my full-time living. Even during these past few years, as I’ve been building my business, I’ve witnessed the emergence of new fad diets, fad techniques, fad solutions, detox teas, and other magic pill solutions. All of them promise fast results, workout-free results, or some easy path to success.
Has it been a smooth road?
I’ve encountered many struggles along the way and that just life. Starting my first business as a junior in high school, I felt like the odd man out. It didn’t make sense to many to start a business that young. I got picked on, laughed at, and criticized. Years went by and I took a leap of faith by dropping everything in Georgia and moving to New York City for a new opportunity selling HVAC equipment door-to-door. I was desperate for change and this was an outlet for me. Three weeks later, I realized it was a huge mistake. I had no passion behind it or no realization of what to do. Moving back to Georgia was rough, again getting criticized by my failures and knowing that I had to start over took a toll on my mind and body. From there trying new opportunities and paving the path, I found myself working with multiple fitness companies learning the industry and what and what not to do. I got to the point where I wanted to go all in and I was sick and tired of being sick of tired. I knew I wasn’t a quitter, but it went through my mind just about every day. Late 2017, I decided to invest my life savings into a program that was going to allow me to make a significant impact in the lives of others and I knew it was a disservice to many if I didn’t learn how to properly build my business. After investing in that program, my life hasn’t been the same. Been able to write my first book “The Longevity Game” A guide to living your best life longer, as well as impact tons of people and I, am just getting started.
What else should our readers know?
EVILA started about seven months ago, where I sat in my room for six hours with a whiteboard thinking about what I wanted to name my company. The word Alive stood out to me more than anything else. When you think about the word alive, most people are going through the motions in life. I want to help switch that up.
EVILA is the world ALIVE spelt backwards and my whole mission is to help people become more ALIVE through health and fitness which in return will help them truly access more of who they are.
EVILA is an acronym.
(E)nergetic
(V)ulnerable
(I)ndependent
(L)oveable
(A)uthentic
I believe if you become all of this not only will you change your health long-term, but also create abundant life.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I believe Atlanta is on the rise for every industry. The population is growing every day and there is opportunity everywhere. Everyone whether they want to admit it or not wants to feel good and look good. There are gyms and studios popping up on every corner in Atlanta. My honest opinion, you can succeed anywhere as long as you put your mind to it. There are just some places that are better than others and Atlanta is one of them.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3201 Downwood Circle, Atlanta, GA 30327
- Phone: 7709102788
- Email: mchiara39@gmail.com
- Instagram: michael_chiara
- Facebook: michaelchiarafit
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
