One of the most common questions I am asked, if not the most common question I am asked is how I went from being a live performer on the Las Vegas Strip to working with horses.
Considering the fact they are polar opposites in terms of occupation, I can understand peoples curiosity.
It all started when I was 9 years old and first learned how to ride. Being around horses is one of the first things I ever did that I truly loved as a child.
I was eventually faced with an ultimatum between having to choose to continue riding horses, or play more competitive ice hockey - I chose the latter.
Once I made the decision to continue playing hockey, my life went on and I eventually stopped thinking about horses.
January of 2022, everything changed for me...
I had been in South Florida to celebrate New Years with some friends and got a little more lay of the land outside of Miami and the city.
I visited a city called Davie which, not many people know about outside of South Florida - Davie is horse country down in the southern part of the Sunshine State, just west of Fort Lauderdale.
It doesn't go without mentioning that horse country in South Florida is not the same as horse country in a place like Texas. There are no 300 acre properties of open range cattle ranches - there are more properties in the central part of the state, but South Florida is far too crowded for having a real ranch.
Most properties in Davie/Southwest Ranches would range anywhere from 1-5 acres, but most places have a barn with horses and maybe some other farm animals.
So, while South Florida may not be horse country the way one would envision places like Texas or Montana, it was "horse country" in its own respects. You will be driving down the road and see people riding their horses on the sidewalk in Davie - it is an interesting place.
Davie and the Southwest Ranches are essentially what sold me on moving to Florida. Once I got a lay of the land and got to be around horses again, I knew that is where I wanted to live and I wanted to work with horses.
On one side of me, I had the ranches with the horses and on the other, I had the beach - it truly was the best of both worlds for the time being.
I liked the idea of moving there because it was a simple life.
I have never been one to particularly like being surrounded by the noise of the outside world and I have always been introverted in that sense. I have always preferred to be quiet in my personal life but always had the skill to be extroverted and loud when I need to be.
I never liked the idea of living in a city for one simple reason - too many people.
Where there are too many people, it's loud, it's chaotic, there a millions of ego's flying around you every second of the day and this is not the type of environment that I find peace in.
One of the biggest reasons I left Las Vegas was because I simply didn't like living there - too many people, too many ego's, too much entitlement, and way too small.
For those who have been to Las Vegas and haven't been off of the strip, Las Vegas as a whole, is extremely small. You could drive from one side of Vegas, all the way to Henderson in less than an hour.
Yet, there were so many people living there and many more people moving there during COVID because the cost of living is much more affordable there than other places.
In fact, the cost of living in Vegas is entirely what made me decide to move there when I first did in 2018, instead of moving straight to California.
I justified my move to Las Vegas as a pit-stop on my way to eventually moving to Hollywood.
I chose Vegas for one - the cost of living is 1000x cheaper than LA, and two - I could get started in entertainment and build my resume before I decided to move to LA.
When I first got approached to perform at the show Chippendales, I never once thought about doing something like Chippendales prior to that - I just wanted to get started in entertainment somehow.
The first year I lived in Vegas I worked as a street performer taking pictures with girls to try and make money on tips, when I got approached by my boss at Chippendales to come audition for the show.
Once I decided to audition, I realized that this was an opportunity for something better to arise, something more along the lines of what I wanted to do - the entire reason I moved all the way the fuck out there.
That was my mindset from the time I first began performing in the show - I saw it as an opportunity to build my resume and for something better to come out of it.
The truth is, I never saw myself as a Chippendale and I still don't see myself as a Chippendale. So, when people ask how I went from doing something like what I used to do, to now working with horses, I make it known that even though that is what I used to do for a living, I never saw myself as a guy to fit the part - I was a guy on a mission and an idea of how I was going to accomplish that mission.
This doesn't go without saying that I am truly blessed to have gotten my experience working there because I made some really good friends with my cast mates and management who I am still in contact with today.
I enjoyed working there, but I hated living in Vegas which is ultimately what drove me from wanting to get away from the West Coast and the entitlement culture as a whole. I simply needed to be out of the chaos because nothing about living there suited my spirit.
Part of the reason why I write about many of the things that I write about now is because of my past experiences in live entertainment.
When I have women telling me that I have women completely "figured out" I say it's because I used to entertain them for a living. I have had thousands of interactions and conversations with women from all over the world, from all different walks of life.
I have also had enough time alone to think about things because as I mentioned earlier, I can't stand being in the noise.
The truth is, I have found genuine peace in being alone, just like I have found genuine peace in working with horses.
Sure, it's cool to get attention and have women throwing themselves at you every night, taking pictures with you, wanting your autograph, etc. but this was never something that truly suited my spirit. It was short-lived gratification that I am smart enough to know isn't going to last over a long enough time horizon.
When I work with horses, I truly feel at peace. Even if I am having a day where I am feeling off, or the horse is having an off-day, there is a feeling that I get every single time I ride that doesn't ever go away - peace.
I can actually live in the present moment when I am working with animals.
I can feel the horse breathing underneath me, every stride it takes, even down to the scenery around me - I take it all in.
God gifted man with horses for a reason and now I know that working with horses is 100% something that I will be doing for the rest of my life.
As I mentioned earlier, I decided to start performing at Chippendales because I knew that something better was going to come out of me being there and here I am. If it wasn't for me working there, I would have never made it to Florida.
The Universe is always listening if you truly believe in something, work hard, and take some risks along the way.