Live Your Best Fitness Life With Darci Daniel of Goals By Darci
Darci Daniel, a Certified Personal Trainer from Detroit, is leading the charge in helping people commit themselves to living a healthy life.
“Get Out And Live Strong” -- the business motto at Goals By Darci, is ingrained in her life, and it’s a chant she instills in her clients each day.
I had the pleasure of meeting the 31-year-old fitness pro to discover how she stepped into her greatness. And, she’s doing so while proving that lifting weights is not just for men.
Mom: The Spark That Lit The Fitness Flame
Darci has a smile that can light up a room. While she’s petite, don’t let the small frame fool you. There’s a firecracker inside of her with tons of spunk and personality.
We immediately started chatting about her journey like two old friends at a high school reunion.
I asked, “So, what sparked you to workout?”
Darci quickly responded:
“My mom. She always works out. Even when I was younger, she was working out. When I was in high school, my mom and her sister-in-law would work out in her sister-in-law’s basement.”
“They listened to Janet Jackson’s Velvet Rope the whole time while they were working out. You know, Janet was ripped. She had abs and everything,” laughed Darci.
“My mom would say, ‘This motivates us to get through our workouts.’ I’d look at them, make a face, and say, ‘Okay’. So, I would just go down there with them and watch.
Sometimes I would work out with them and sometimes I wouldn’t. Sometimes I’ll just be sitting there looking at them.”
The Decision to Get Real With Fitness
Photo courtesy of Goals By Darci
Listening to Darci, I could hear a repeated pattern of working out some of the time. Fitness wasn’t a constant for her, even though her mom set the precedent.
It was easy to see how this behavior transferred into her lifestyle as an adult.
“As I got older, I would do the same thing. Sometimes I worked out, sometimes I didn’t. And then one day I decided that I need to start going to the gym on a regular basis.
But when I got to the gym, I didn’t know what to do. Mind you, I was skinny. So, I would go in there and do a whole bunch of cardio.”
And you thought you were doing what you were supposed to do, right?
“Yeah,” said Darci. “But you don’t know what you don’t know.” Her gym routine went a little something like this:
“I would be in there just running on the treadmill. Next, I would get on the elliptical. Then I’ll say, all right, let me do some crunches. Okay, it’s been an hour, I’m gonna go.”
“Well, you were doing something, though,” I responded.
“But I was just making stuff up and figuring stuff out,” said Darci. And I was small, you know what I mean?’
Yes, I said, referring to my own body frame and struggles with the gym. So, people are looking at you and thinking, what are you here for?”
“Exactly,” replied Darci. They are like, ‘ What are you doing?’ Man, let me be great,” she proclaimed while laughing.
Darci’s Fit and Fabulous Body Goals
After we laughed about skinny women problems at the gym, Darci began to explain her fitness goals.
For some people, being small is a privilege. It’s what everyone strives for. But Darci wanted something different.
“I wanted to gain weight and muscle.”
“Wow, that was unexpected," I said.” Darci continued:
“But there were people around me saying, ‘Don’t get too big. Or, ‘If you lift weights, you’re gonna be big and you’re gonna look like a boy’.”
As we can tell, Darci didn’t let the naysayers stop her.
Photo courtesy of Goals By Darci
“The problem was, I didn’t know how to gain weight and muscle. I was in the gym one day and a trainer started talking to me. He asked, ‘What are you trying to do? What are you working on?’”
“And, this was just random?” I asked.
“Yes,” exclaimed Darci. “So, I started telling him about my goals. He asked me, ‘Why so much cardio?’"
Darci shrugged, "I don’t know.” She continued, "He said, 'You need to get off the cardio machines. And, you need to lift weights.’
Before I could even get a word in, he said, ‘I don’t wanna hear it. You need to lift weights. I’ll train you.’”
Darci’s body goals started with her trainer in Detroit. “I trained with him and immediately, I could start seeing changes,” she said.
The trainer cut her lengthy, 30 minute cardio stints down to a warm-up and showed her how to properly work out.
“He showed me how to do all these different things. And I thought, ‘Oh, this makes sense now.’ And it just kind of clicked.”
The Road to Personal Trainer Begins
Photo Courtesy of Goals By Darci
After Darci got clear on her fitness goals, learned the right way to work out, and started receiving results, her friends wanted to join her fitness journey.
Darci took them under her newfound fitness wing.
“A friend I worked with kept saying she wanted to work out with me. So I took her to the gym.
The next day she’d come to work with a zip lock bag full of cookies and chips all mixed together. I frowned, ‘What’s this?’ She said, ‘It’s my breakfast.’”
“Uh oh,” I said as I leaned forward.
“I said, ‘No, this is not your breakfast.’ Then, she came in another day with a blueberry muffin.
So, I asked, ‘What’s this?’ ‘My breakfast’, she responded. I told her, ‘Well, that ain’t your breakfast either.’”
“Wait. This happened while she’s working out with you?” I asked in a surprised tone.
“Yeah,” Darci replied. I had to tell her, ‘Listen. No more of this. We go to lunch every day. This is what I’m getting. This is what you need to be getting.’
So from then on, I started helping her with her food. After the gym, I would call her and ask, ‘So, what you about to make for dinner?’ She’d say, ‘I’m just making turkey burgers. I’m not having fries.’
All I could say was ‘Thank you. Meet me halfway.’ I really helped her and she lost a lot of weight.
She was getting stronger, she was losing weight, and she was eating better. It took her months to really get the hang of it.”
Yeah, people think that food, fitness, or body changes happen overnight, I replied.
“That’s one thing people don’t understand. The first month, you’re still eating bad,” Darci explained.
“The second month — now, I got you eating decent and I can get you in the gym. Third month — now, you’re starting to see a little bit of change. It takes time because some people just aren’t that disciplined in the beginning.”
Because of the help Darci’s friend and coworker was receiving, she encouraged Darci to train people. Darci was hesitant at first, but she gave it a chance.
“I trained my cousin, a couple of my friends, and co-workers in the morning or evening after work. I was enjoying it and I was having fun.
They probably weren’t. But I was enjoying myself, you know what I mean?” she laughed.
“It was something for me to look forward to. It made me happy and it made me feel good to know that I get to help people.”
The Loss That Pushed Darci Into Her Your Passion
Photo courtesy of Goals By Darci
Darci moved to Los Angeles (LA) and worked as a full-time mortgage underwriter. She worked in addition to training people on the side.
“I was making good money but it was just one of those things where you think, is this it? Just go to work everyday? There was nothing fulfilling or passionate about it.”
When she lost her job, in October 2018, she was forced to pursue her passion.
“It was 5:00 pm on the last day of the month and I’m getting ready to get off work. I see HR calling. And I’m like HR? I know I had some issues with my system earlier. I figured, maybe it’s about that. So I answered.
I remember hearing something along the lines of today being your last day. Your benefits are over.
I was just like, ‘I don’t understand what you mean. I’ve been at this company for 2 years. I have been mortgage underwriting for 6 years.”’
“Wow, so you were just trying to process it all? I asked.
“Yeah. I kept saying, I don’t understand. She said it was an involuntary termination. I said, ‘Well I didn’t volunteer to be terminated, so obviously it’s involuntary.’
I asked her all sorts of questions. Am I fired? She said no, you’re not fired. You’re gonna get unemployment benefits.
I said, oh, so I’m laid off. She came back and said, ‘No, you’re not laid off.’
“This was a 15 minute conversation of me saying I don’t understand. I’ve never not worked. I’ve been in the mortgage industry since 2010. I’ve been underwriting since 2012. I don’t understand what you’re talking about right now. ”
I kept asking, ‘Did I do something wrong?’ She said, ‘No.’ I asked if I was in trouble and if I’ve ever been written up.
She simply said, ‘We’re an at-will company, so we can let employees go whenever we want to without an explanation on our part.’”
“This had to be a tough pill to swallow,” I said.
“After that, I was really down for a long time — like a long time. Me and my roommate had been talking about leaving LA.
The holidays came and I said, ‘I’m gonna be real honest with you. I can’t afford to stay here. It’s too expensive. I don’t have a job. Our lease is gonna be up in a few months. We need to figure out what we’re gonna do.’”
Darci’s roommate wasn’t sure whether she wanted to stay in LA herself.
Together, they decided to make a plan. Her roommate has family in Houston, so she suggested going there to test it out.
“My roommate said, 'What if we just try Houston for a year and just see what happens, unless you wanna go home.' I quickly said no. I told her, ‘Let’s just try it for a year, and see what happens.’”
Darci’s Big Break in NW Houston
Photo Courtesy of Goals By Darci
In the meantime, Darci took the NASM-CPT exam to become a Certified Personal Trainer.
She passed the exam, obtained her certification, and trained people in LA to get some money before moving to Houston in March of 2019.
Darci remained on unemployment benefits until May 2019. Although she was filling out several applications, she had no luck finding a job.
“I got here, was sick of my unemployment, and I got worried. I said to myself, ‘Okay, I have to try to start building my clientele.’”
I started following a lot of people in the area on Instagram. I followed a lot of fitness people in ATL, Chicago, LA, and New York.
For some reason, I didn’t follow a lot of people in Houston. So I started to find and follow people in Houston.
The guy that owns America’s Next Draft Pick, DM’d (direct messaged, for the older, yet wiser folk) me in April 2019.
He said he helps and mentors younger trainers and asked me what kind of training I was into.
He told me that he has personal trainers at his gym and offered to help me.”
“Really?” I yelled.
“Yes. I was like, look at God, just moving. I literally only been here a month. ”
He invited me to the free class on Saturdays. So, I went and brought a few friends. This class was so hard. It was so hard and there were a lot of people there.”
“The free class was hard?” I asked confused.
“The free 10:00 am class is so hard. There’s a lot of people in there — big people, small people — and they are just going. My friends said, ‘You’re gonna buy us lunch when we leave here.’”
Darci and I were sharing laughs from the gut. Then, she proceeded to talk about how she was thrown into the ring of fire.
“The class is almost over and he said, ‘Come here.’ I stood there frozen and said, ‘Me?’ ‘Yeah. You, come up here,” he said.
Darci said there were about 45 people in this class and she had never stood in front of that many people at one time, in one setting.
“He said, ‘This is Darci. She’s gonna start training here and she’s gonna finish the class.’
“I’ve never trained that many people in my life,” she said. He continued, ‘Go ahead, finish the class. You got 15 minutes. Introduce yourself, go.’”
"Man, that’s pretty intense," I said.
“That’s the type of guy he is. He’ll just throw you on the spot right then and there. So, you literally have to turn your personality on. I said, ‘My name is Darci, I just moved here. All right, let’s go.’ I made up some stuff on the spot and wore their asses out for 10 minutes. ”
When we finished, I asked him, why would you do that? He said, ‘You need to learn how to think on your feet.’”
So, the owner of the gym basically helped you get out of your comfort zone?
“He forced me out of my comfort zone. He kicked me, then pushed me. He rolled me right on out of there,” she said with laughter.
“Yeah, getting out of your comfort zone is key,” I replied.
“When that happens, you notice things about yourself that you didn’t know. I was nervous for months — from April to June. But you just get used to it. And, I now know to expect the unexpected. Anything can happen and it’s good to be able to think and move on your feet like that.”
Helping People Get Out And Live Strong
Photo Courtesy of Goals By Darci
Darci’s pursuing her passion of training people while building her independent brand and client base at her new gym home, America’s Next Draft Pick, in Cypress, TX.
“I’m slowly starting to build a clientele in two locations. We can meet at the gym at my apartment complex here in West Houston or if you’re close to Cypress, you come to the gym.”
Darci provided me with her personal training schedule:
Energy Corridor
Mon/Wed/Fri: 5 am-7:30 pm
Tue/Thu: 5 am-9 am
Sat: 6 am-830 am
Sun: 8 am-3 pm
Cypress
Tue/Thu: 10 am-6:30 pm
Sat: 12 pm-4 pm
Group Sessions in Cypress
Tue/Thu: 7:30 pm
Sat (FREE) 10 am and 11 am
“So, how’s everything going since you’ve started here?” I asked.
“I love it. I really love doing my group sessions. It’s such a great community. People of all different shapes, sizes and all different levels of fitness. And, they all support one another.
When I say all shapes and sizes, I mean all shapes and sizes. Little, big, old, young, it doesn’t matter. Everybody in there, everybody working. Everybody is doing their best.”
In September, Darci helped Prince Tundee launch a 90 day fitness challenge for students at Prairie View A&M University (PV) consisting of:
Meal planning ideas
3 Day On Campus Group Training
2 Day Virtual Training
Weekly Check-ins/Newsletter
Monthly Progress Tracking
Monthly Seminar with Guest Speakers and Trainers
The challenge involved cash prizes as well. There’s a challenge currently in progress through April 4th.
“Everybody wants to get in shape for the new year,” said Darci.
When she was approached with the project, she was nervous at first. “I didn’t go to PV. I’m not from here. I’m not alumni.
All I could think is, what if they don’t like me? But I went up there and we trained them and we worked out. Everyone was really nice. It was great and we had fun.”
Black Women — Darci’s Primary Fitness Clients
I was curious, so I had to ask Darci this question: What demographic of clients do you work with?
“Most of my clientele is older women -- older black women,” she replied. “I may have had 1 or 2 clients under the age of 35. But most of them are 35 to 50. “
“So, people my age? Wonder why that is,” I pondered.
“I prefer that age group because at this point, you’re serious about it, right? At 19 and 20, you’re hot shit, you feel me? You ain’t got nothing to worry about. You’re fine, you look good.
By the time you get older, you’re a bit more stable. And, you’re a little more serious about it because, especially as black people, we need to get control of our health. ”
Darci on 2020, Entrepreneurship, and Making NW Houston Her Home
Even though she experienced some hardships in 2019, she's doing what she loves -- helping people. I asked what 2020 looks like for her and she replied:
“I’m really excited about next year. ‘Cause I had no idea this year was gonna go like this.”
“I’ve learned that entrepreneurship is about networking and connections. Everything isn’t about how much money I can make from this. It’s just really more so like what can I learn from this.”
“Amen to that,” I said.
“It’s all about learning and having that experience. You’ll make the money if you do the work. It’s just being patient and a matter of time.”
“So, how’s Houston treating you?” I asked.
“People are nice here. People in LA are not nice. People in Detroit are not nice. People here are just nice, and it’s just great.”
I politely smiled, “You’re just getting that good ol’ southern hospitality.”
“It’s a real thing!” Darci shrieked. “I like it so far. I’m glad that I decided to give it a shot. ‘Cause that’s really all it was - taking a shot.
And then all this stuff happened. God be working!”
“Oh yes,” I agreed. “And there’s always a story there.”
“It’s always a story,” said Darci. People’s individual stories are so important.
As a person, I know now that I have to have a purpose. And I realized this is my purpose, because there was nothing else that I wanted to do at all.
"Exactly," I said.
“It’s about doing things that you love. It’s about changing people’s lives,” she continued.
“For me, it’s about people feeling good about themselves and confidence. My clients text me and tell me how good they feel all the time. That’s the biggest thing for me. I just want you to feel good about yourself.
Skipping the alcohol on the weekend is gonna pay off when you put on them jeans that were tight and now they’re too big.
When that stomach you were so concerned about starts going down and down and down. That’s it. The biggest thing for me is helping people get over that hump. ”
Photo Courtesy of Goals By Darci
I can’t wait to share more of Darci’s story with you in the first issue of Kin + Dignity Magazine! You can beat the rush and reserve your digital subscription now!
We’ll talk about what it’s like being a trainer, how she quit fitness, and how she kicks people in shape with her nutrition plans.
Be sure to follow and support Goals By Darci on Instagram. And, when you’re ready to get that workout, check out Darci at America’s Next Draft Pick on Saturdays for her Free Fitcamp on Saturdays at 11 am!