Welcome
I'm interested in teaching you everything they should, but don't. The things like where stress in your life is really coming from, how to handle it, why you think the way that is unique to you and how to really create sustainable success in every area of your life.
.09% - that is the probability of an American High School basketball player playing professionally at some point in their career. I am fortunate enough to be able to say I spent ten years traveling the world, being paid to play a game. Between my collegiate and professional careers, I went where the ball bounced and it quite literally changed the complexion of my life.
Becoming a professional athlete is everything you think it would be—consisting of early mornings, late nights, thousands of hours of hard work and plenty of adversity along the way. My experiences are something I will be eternally grateful for but more than anything, I find comfort that I have undoubtedly earned everything along the way.
As I said before, being a professional athlete changed my life in ways I never imagined it would. In fact, being a professional athlete almost killed me... twice.
My Story
My parents divorced when I was young and throughout my teenage years, my brother and I were raised by a single mother. We had very little—there were times with no electricity or heat while we watched our mother sacrifice her own dinner to make sure we were fed. We didn't know any different but I knew I wanted to be able to provide better for my mother and sports were going to be my way out. So I put the work in and chased a dream.
I earned a College Scholarship to Stony Brook University where I earned my degrees, was named captain as a senior, left as the winningest player in program history to that point, and eventually earned my first professional contract to play in Europe.
Four days after returning home from my first professional season, my mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. A year later, she was gone. The next 18 months would go on to shape who I would become.
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I quickly found out how ill-equipped I was to handle the emotional burdens resting on my shoulders while I continued to put all of my effort and focus into my career as a professional athlete. When you focus on WHAT you are, rather than WHO you are, bad things are bound to happen.​
A year after my mother's passing, I collapsed in the middle of a game and went into Cardiac Arrest. After numerous visits to specialists around Europe and the United States, I was let go from my professional team and was told that my career was over. With no path forward and having spent two months of spiraling in depression, I decided the emotional burden I was carrying was too much and it was time to give up. The very next day after backing out of taking my own life, I had a contract offer from a team in Australia. Two weeks later and I was off to Australia, picked up at the airport by my future wife and so began the foundations of my comeback story.
The Next Chapter
It has long been my belief that our pain becomes our purpose and our triumphs become our teachings. We hold a responsibility to others to help guide them through their own struggles. My mental health battles, particularly as an athlete, caused me to begin speaking out to break down the stigma's society, and athletes in particular, have when it comes to our mental well-being. Thus, Empire Sport Performance was born, with the intention of helping athletes measure, regulate and improve their stress levels, performance and impact on winning. I have had the privilege of working with the elite of the elite in the athletic space, including the NBA, Olympians, PGA golfers and many more.
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Much like in sports, we all put effort into getting results, runs on the board and wins next to our names. We all have huge dreams and goals that we wish to achieve for ourselves to create better opportunities for those we love and the communities around us. To achieve these goals, we must prioritize our efforts towards the short term. Makes sense, right?​ As we say, winning comes at a cost.
HOWEVER, that doesn't mean striving towards our goals has to come at the cost of our mental well-being or long term sustainability. There are two kinds of wins in life: those based on how quickly we get somewhere and those based on how far we travel. Life's greatest riches always lie in the latter race. Understanding the way we think and how it influences the goals we create, how we achieve them, where stress comes from and creating the environment that best suits us is what I have specialized in as a consultant to some of the worlds top athletes and sporting organizations. Now, it's time to give those tools to the rest of the world.