When winter came around again, I made up my mind to move back to Florida. I contacted some friends who managed a health club and asked them if I could have a job selling memberships while I worked on developing a personal training business. The answer was yes! So after my one year commitment was up at Kimberly-Clark, I packed up my truck and headed back to Florida.
This was a turning point in my life. Florida is where I was introduced to bodybuilding as a sport, and learned there was more things to do on the weekends than just party all the time. When I moved back to Florida, I almost felt like I was back in college again because the people I hung out with were big partiers. I admit I was having fun, but I wasn't really going anywhere in life except to the next party.
In the spring of 1992, I was talked into doing a local bodybuilding show by Mark Klonis, one of my friends. This was scary. I had never been to a show, nor had I even watched one on TV. I didn't even know what the Mr. Olympia was! I hate to admit it, but I never even really knew who Arnold was at the time. Basically, I knew nothing about bodybuilding. In Wisconsin, I never had any exposure to the sport whatsoever. However, the one thing I did know, was I couldn't party and be competitive in bodybuilding. I had to learn to say no to drinking when I went out with my friends. At first it was hard, but as I started reading more about bodybuilding, nutrition, and training, I could not find one positive thing mentioned about partying. This made it easier for me to lay off the drinking. All partying did was cause you to take in empty calories, increase your appetite for the wrong kinds of food, and make you feel like shit the next day. I have to admit this was a big eye opener for me. Until I started getting ready for this show, I bet you every weekend for the better part of my life I spent going to the next party.
I ended up winning the light-heavyweight class of a local Florida show in May of 1992, weighing 191 lbs. The funny part of that show was, I had no idea there was a posedown at the end of the show. I was dressed and sitting in the audience when the others were up there for the posedown. The MC had to call me up and tell me I was a part of the posedown. I finally made it up on stage and I think that is what got me hooked on competing. The feeling of the posedown. It was a lot of fun hearing the crowd cheer and really getting into it. Even though I didn't win the overall, I sure had fun trying! This feeling is what motivated me to see how far I could take myself in the sport of bodybuilding.
In 1994, my personal training business was doing well and my urge to compete again was getting out of control. I started entering the local NPC shows, proving to myself I could be competitive by winning my weight class and the overalls. I was really enjoying my success, but I did realize I was only competing locally. In 1995, however, I moved up to enter some state level shows along with some of the drug tested shows in the ANBC. Here I also proved to myself I had the tools necessary to be competitive nationally.
Although I was successful in these competitions, nobody knew who I was, because none of these shows were big enough to get any coverage. In October of 1995, I decided to go to the Mr. Olympia in Atlanta, because I knew it would be a place to meet people in the industry. I lucked out one day because I was working out at Lee Haney's gym when Corey Everson, Bob Wolff (from Muscle & Fitness) and a few other writers came in to workout. I was in good shape since I was getting ready to do the ANBC nationals in November. They all came up to talk to me. It was exciting for me because I always thought Corey was beautiful. I have to admit, she was even more impressive in person! Anyway, Bob took my name and told me they might be able to use me for a photo shoot over the weekend. It ended up working out for me and I did my first photo shoot for a national magazine. The exposure gave me some good contacts.