Michael Waters built a name in the sports industry by combining exceptional skills in entrepreneurship, performance training, and marketing. His leadership has played a major role in the success of hundreds of athletes. As the founder and owner of Phase 1 Sports in Las Vegas Nevada, he has created a system that has proven to be successful. Since inception, Phase 1 Sports has become the training facility for athletes, adults, fitness competitors, kids, and anyone else.

He was named the Nevada Microenterprise Initiative Business Person of the Year. He is also an active participant in the Clark County School District PAYBAC, and Stay in School Mentoring Project. Michael is also very active partner with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a Board member of Phase 1 Youth Foundation, and a number of other charitable organizations.

Now Michael has a new desire to help entrepreneurs start, build and stabilize their business as Phase 1 continues to grow. Understanding the difficulties and opportunities of starting from nothing and building a business, he is now continuing to learn and more importantly share.

Can you tell us more about yourself? Like how did you get started in your profession, where you live, your education, what was it like growing up, etc?
Grew up in Southern CA fell in love with football at early age. Senior year of HS had 2 scholarship offers and could not accept either one due to grades and test scores not being good enough. Went to Junior College simply to play football. Transferred to UNLV, by the end of college realized the positive affect that sports had on my life so I started Phase 1 Sports to work with young athletes.

How did you get started with Phase 1 Sports? What made you venture to start the business to build a training center for athletes?
In the beginning people said I could never make a business out of training athletes and that became my ultimate goal. So after years of studying business and applying my passion for sports we have created over 10 years of success.

What did you dream Phase 1 would be 11 years ago vs. what it has become today?
Never worried about what it would be, my goal was to simply help as many athletes as possible. What I didn't expect was the success that we have had training adults and fitness competitors as well. We now have a large client base of adults and competitors that love AXT-Athletic Cross Training which is a training style that we are pioneering.

What makes Phase 1 Sports differ from other training centers? How one can be a member for those who are interested to join?
Basically if you want to look like an athlete, train like an athlete. Thats are motto and everyone has a athlete body type they want to have. We help them get there. We have a program for everyone from 5-100 years old, athlete, student, mom, dad and everyone in between.

You also have a foundation named after Phase 1 for the youth in partnership with Fellowship of Christian Athletes. can you tell us more about this foundation? 
We are big on community. We currently work with a few non-profit organization throughout Las Vegas. Recently we took the next step and actually created the Phase 1 Foundation. It's an extension of what we have been doing for years, now we have the ability to expand and help even more at-risk youth using their passion for sports.

What can you advice to those who wants to start to focus their dreams and pursue to build up their own brand?

Branding is everything. First, I would study other brands that we are already familiar with. Nike, Mercedez, Gucci, etc. Ask yourself the question, does my perception of their brand match what they want me to think? Nike, best athletes, training gear, apparel, winners, etc. Wether that association is true or not doesn't matter. Its about what we perceive it to be. So what is your brand and what can you do to make sure people perceive it the way you want them to.

If you were to explain FMI to someone who could benefit from it, how would you describe FMI and what it did for you?
FMI is a real world university. Most people may categorize it with seminars, educational videos, or other similar events. However, the biggest difference is the real live examples of people that are successful sharing their secrets. Real life secrets, not just studies and market assumptions. For me FMI has provided real things to implement into my business. Things that have already proven to increase our brand and revenue.

How was your experience interacting with FMI members and fitness trainers?
Great, still communicate with a number of them.

Can you give us your top 5 best tips when it comes to build a Performance Training Facility?
Passion, planning, patience, persistence, and prayer 🙂

For future reference, how can future clients contact you through internet for more information about you, Phase 1 Sports and its training?
Communicating is one of my passions so email, social media, or website. [email protected] IG/FB iamphase1 www.iamphase1.com