Meet George Pagan III | Full-Time Personal Trainer & advocate for a higher quality fitness professional

We had the good fortune of connecting with George Pagan III and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi George, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I think creating FITLETE is kind of a cool “origin story” for a business to have because it was a combined effort of my personal ambitions and my professional ones. I had a lot going on in my life at the time. In early 2012 I was finishing my rehab from an ACL surgery and moved from New York to Miami with my girlfriend(who is now my wife), I didn’t have any job prospects lined up so I began looking for work doing what I had been successfully doing in New York before I left; I was a personal trainer. I am big into having a hobby, and since I was still rehabbing from the injury and living off my savings until I found a job my options were limited. I couldn’t do a whole lot of exploring this new city I was living in and the rehab process limited my options to less physical hobbies until I felt more confident with my knee. I decided that it would probably be in my best interest to learn how to code since the internet probably wasn’t going anywhere, haha. Being a personal trainer and lover of science it was difficult to sit down and learn the abstract language of front end web development. During this time I had been slacking on fulfilling my continuing education requirements to maintain my NSCA-CSCS certification and it was getting close to the deadline for renewal. Since I was new to the city I wasn’t aware of any gyms or businesses that had local seminars come into town and I was too broke to travel to one. I went on a google search rampage to try and find some in Miami. After bookmarking tons of websites, asking question in Facebook & LinkedIn groups, and spending at least 100 hours browsing sites for seminars I knew there could be a better way to find what I needed. I decided to create it and FITLETE has been the go to destination for personal trainers to find in person and online continuing education since 2013. After the first year it was the largest collection of in person education opportunities and has exponentially grown to change alongside an ever evolving industry.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I’m not going to lie a professor in college told me I would be better off just graduating and not pursuing a career in the fitness industry, and having a successful & profitable personal training career for over a decade along with a growing second business in the same industry feels tremendous. It was never really easy, and I think a lot of people looking to get into personal training think it’s easy to coast without a lot of work just to get started. It’s often seen as a just a way to make some easy side money, or something you can do only when you want to. The reality is a personal trainer is being a commission only sales person & hourly practitioner all at the same time in most gyms, and that’s typically why the industry turn over rate for new trainers is barely a year. I want people interested in helping others to stay in the industry longer because we lose a lot of high quality coaches & trainers each year. Helping these coaches find high quality business mentors familiar with the industry and education to hone their practical coaching skills brings the entire industry up to another level. These coaches won’t be forced to promote questionable products, scam supplements, sexualize themselves in order to try and make a living, or leave the industry entirely just to make a living. You can make a great living and beneficial impact on people being a coach and just being a coach. I want FITLETE to prop up that message to young professionals.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Love this question. If you are ever in Wynwood you will see me walking around there daily. I’ve been an pencil and acrylic artist since I was a kid and this area is an incredible environment for me. It’s constantly changing and walking here with my headphones in helps me relax and disconnect. If Jonathan was coming down I’d try and convince him to get up for a South of 5th Miami Beach sunrise and beach stroll. I don’t think there’s a more peaceful way to experience South Beach than in the early morning, it’s becomes a different world as the day goes on. Now that we are at peace and relaxed it’s coffee time, and there’s no better place than Suite Habana Cafe (@suitehabanacafe) in Wynwood, I remember when they opened and I talked with the owners one morning over an latte and almond croissant for what seemed like an hour, Nayelis & Manny are genuine souls I want to support. We are going to walk around Wynwood now and take in the art and at this point I’ve walked up an appetite and Zak the Baker is my Everything Bagel Breakfast Sandwich spot, It’s not the classic NYC style BEC, but man do they just do it right. Then Full bellies we are gunna drive to Key Biscayne to play a round of golf at Crandon, its a hard course, and I like the challenge. I can’t forget about the beach and we will go to Crandon Beach or Bill Baggs Cape for a little more relaxing environment to get our bronze on. I’m working myself up thinking about it, but after a good day in the sun I wanna have a nice hearty meal in a chill environment and I don’t think there a better place than Shelter Wynwood for that. When you walk into Shelter you get transported to this chateau in the snowy mountains, it’s an incredible atmosphere paired with some amazing food. I’m ordering their Brugal rum old fashion, baked elote and BBQ pork empanadas, and the truffle white pizza. If he’s here on a Saturday we have to go to Hybrid Performance Method Gym for their Free drop in Saturday from 1-4pm every Saturday, then take ourselves to Smorgasburg to pig out on the amazing food, if you have never been to Smorgasburg for a late lunch/early dinner then you’ve been missing out on 60 specialty food vendors grouped together creating a foodies heaven. If you are at all creative then you need to connect with Kenrick and Biz at HGAB Studios in Midtown.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
As for support I can not say enough about my wife Nikki, she has been through the thick and thin of it all with me, I could write an entire essay on how supportive she has been. I didn’t have any formal mentors and at the time didn’t read a lot of books, but I was reading a lot of blogs and 2 indirect influences on me were Jon Goodman from the Personal Training Development Center(theptdc.com), and Pete Dupuis(petedupuis.com). I know for a fact this last person doesn’t have an idea of how much they were an influence on me as a professional because he is a former personal training client of mine that turned into a close friend. Dave Senra is also a self starting business owner and family man who has helped me look at myself in the mirror and confidently bet on myself each day and not give up when challenged.

Website: https://fitlete.com

Instagram: @fitletenation

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgepagan3rd/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fitletes

Other: Free Newsletter:https://fitlete.substack.com/ Personal Training Website: gp3strength.club Photos Of Wynwood: https://unsplash.com/@gpthree