Not Mere Mortals. No one. Not ever.
Most gods and goddesses have an origin story. Much like our heroes do. We watched these movies and read these books in thrill that the average became extraordinary, defied the odds and somehow despite all they went through are still inherently great.
This is the origin story of Performance Tempel. It is the truth, no fabrication. If it’s legend or greatness, that’s for you to decide… isn’t it?
2017
In the winter of 2017 the project concept came to me about elevating the human body. As a bikini competitor, who made the decision to leave the stage and the sport based on stressful conditions, I was struggling with the way my body was changing. Performance Tempel was born.
Initially what I desired to bring to market was activewear. Hiring a specialist, we went to work sketching and sourcing fabrics. Speaking with Italian clothiers and formulating the DNA of Performance Tempel around performance wear. Then, life changed for me again… financially. I was forced to make a decision that brought me a lot of anguish— to voluntarily choose between these dreams and the gym.
2018
That sounds ludicrous. Whats the big deal about giving up a gym membership? In 2018 the Instagram channel had 30 followers. I was spending hundreds of dollars that were adding up to thousands on the performance wear development. To cap it off, because of a sabbatical from my professional career due to client fatigue, my self-employed income was sparse. And the gym…well the gym was my sanctuary away from all the stress, everything and everybody.
I quit the gym. Deciding that I would continue my training at home. It brought me so much mental pain, not gonna lie. My ego was hurt to not feel a barbell or lift myself up on the pull up bar or hear the clanking of the plates. I needed the resistance, the strain— the competition of me versus me. That’s when I started researching resistance bands and how to find the performance quality that would make them work at home.
Being in a gym or apart of a gym community is a luxury we take for granted. Hell, it’s almost like church when you go religiously. and I did.
Those nights in the garage with my make-shift barbell made of pipe and weights were shameful. When I posted a workout video, I’d cringe, but ultimately it had to be done. I couldn’t let my body go… it’s is, after all, mine. It was, it is my tempel— not the gym.
Working with a manufacturer to get the quality and design right for the Performance Tempel Strength Training Bands was a 3 month long process in which more thousands were spent. When the UPS truck backed into the driveway to drop off the boxes, panic set it. “How the F am I supposed to sell these.”
The panic was valid. I didn’t sell not a one. All the bands that people received in 2018, I gifted. By the end of 2018 I was running low on optimism that Performance Tempel would ever pop-off as I hoped. I shuttered the operations.
2019
2019 is a big blurb that deserves way more than this cheap-shot paragraph. To graze the surface of the brilliance and terror of the year (because if you’ve read this far you deserve a payout) — I loved and I lost it and I loved again— myself.
2020
2020. Wow. Twenty damn twenty *insert Denzel Training Day laugh*. It’s going to sound odd. You’ll probably call it bullshit. But ask people who talked to me in January 2020 and they’ll tell you that I could feel in my spirit that something was coming. Something that would require more from me and thus me requiring more from my life.
Some act of sheer circumstance. A blow I felt was coming. I knew I had to brace myself for it. At first, I thought it was the death of Kobe. But that…that was just the beginning of the final heartbreaks that happened for me to break open like I believe I needed too.
I broke and finally the unapologetic flowed out of me. Finally I started putting it all out there, leaving my heart on the floor… to ask God— the creator of the universe for greatness, for that same lust for life that my Kobe has. I did that. I made that commitment to God and to myself. That was February.
April 2020
And here we are after the shit-show that was March and the everyday crisis that is COVID-19. Performance Tempel is nearly sold out of resistance bands and I am hovering over all this in learning and love. Performance Tempel, the great, has finally been revealed. It is magnificent and more than I could have asked for. I cant wait for the world to see its beauty. To hear its tale of guts and glory (because it’s far from over) and to recognize that the greatest creation is the human body because it is the vessel for the extraordinary.
Beyond A Date…
This next level requires a mental and physical fitness from me that I’ve yet to tap into but that I know I’m ready to overtake. This next level requires the same from you. Please join us or don’t. Nothing will ever be the same.