Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Renner.
Thomas, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
After experiencing my own weight-loss journey, I knew my passion in life was helping people achieve goals they never thought possible. Upon completion of my BFA in Musical Theater from The Boston Conservatory, I returned to Dallas and pursued theatre and dance. In 2011, after completing my NASM Personal Training certification, I felt an emotional shift to truly create a life of helping others. This launched my fitness career in the Fall of 2012 teaching indoor cycling with Flywheel Sports. Since then, I have become a certified group fitness specialist, fitness nutritional specialist, and a YTT 200hr certified Yoga instructor.
Bringing Dallas indoor cycling to life, leading the Flywheel Sports instructor team from 2013-2016, and traveling across the country to teach and train instructors in multiple formats has been a pinnacle in my fitness career. I will forever be grateful to Ruth Zuckerman, John Wellman, and Aleah Stander for their love and guidance in my growth as an instructor and as a person. Post Flywheel, I now teach multiple fitness formats for Equinox, CycleBar, We Yogis, and City Yoga. Outside of teaching group fitness, I have extended into the virtual world and am currently accepting personal training clients and private yoga clients!
Building your own brand in a huge community takes time and I’m grateful to represent Lululemon, Entity Muscle Balm, Private Health Fitness, and Every Man Jack as an ambassador in Dallas.
With a desire to take coaching people to the next level, I’m grateful to announce my return to school at Accomplishment Coaching to obtain my coaching certification and broaden my community outreach beyond Texas. Reaching my full potential is my dream and I truly believe that we can all achieve it together.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I think smooth is relative, right? Everything is about perspective. I truly believe that things happen as they are supposed to happen and we get to choose how we act and react. Has there been challenges? Yes! Have I had my fair share of dramatics? 1000%! (Just ask my friends!) But I wouldn’t change a thing.
Being a manager is a challenge in itself. It is tough. You grow as person both emotionally and mentally as you deal with different energies. Not everyone is coached in the same way. There is a lot of navigating personalities, too. Especially in the fitness industry as we’re all constantly grinding.
I’d say two (of many) big a-ha moments that happened in the past ten years, (even though I’m barely 25 *wink*) would be:
1. You’re never going to make everyone happy. Stop trying. Make yourself happy and those decisions to appease everyone will be less stressful. Everyone will be ok in the end.
2. Working out when you teach fitness can be a chore. It’s not always fun and you have to plan. Sometimes planning things takes the fun out of it, but for me working out is my mental wellness recharge. My alone time. My energetic meditation.
And as aforementioned, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m who I am today because of the obstacles I have had to overcome.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m breaking into the realm of life coaching. As much as I love to talk, I specialize in listening. I used to be quick to give advice, but over the years I have learned that listening presents much more of an impact. Coaching is broad spectrum of careers, therefore, I’m excited to learn what my niche is as I go through my coaching program.
I’m most proud of my determination to grow and learn; and being a perpetual student, especially a student of change. Currently, I’m investing in myself by reading and meditating. Both present challenges as I’m full of energy and get distracted easily…but nothing you truly want comes easily and will always be worth it in the end.
We all work really hard to get where we want in life. What sets me apart is I have an undeniable care for helping others and an empathy that sometimes expresses itself so deeply it can be detrimental. But I find this allows me to connect easily with others. People want to feel comfortable and be heard. I like to feel I can create both of those environments effortlessly. Some may say that I’m funny but I just like to be goofy and say what’s on my mind and try not to take life too seriously. Like The Bachelor… you can’t take that show too seriously…but I watch every second of it. *hair toss*
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Outside of working on my coaching career, which is big, I am working on developing a business that helps people create their life in the way they want it designed. Everyone can gain by having a coach, if only to become more aware of how to get from point A to point B.
I love teaching fitness and see myself doing that for the foreseeable future as it gives me an outlet to entertain and motivate large groups of people and make long-lasting connections.
I have a deep desire to live near water or mountains…so there’s that! 🙂
Contact Info:
- Email: thomasrennerofficial@gmail.com
- Instagram: ThomasRennerOfficial
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThomasRennerOfficial
Image Credit:
Mitch Lazorko and Courtney Flores
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