What was the highlight of your experience on love island? 

The highlight was actually my very first experience, arriving to the show on a helicopter. I’d never been on a helicopter before, so it was a completely out-of-body experience. I think in general, it would have been an out of body experience, but going into a helicopter in Hawaii, flying over the Villa, seeing it in real life (cause I saw it on TV before, I’d watched the first two episodes), and realizing I’m going to be in there and have this excellent experience was very surreal. That’s something I’ll never forget by any means.

What is your biggest lesson learned from your experience on the show?

I think the biggest lesson learned, which I thought I knew before I went in there, would be to be 100% true to myself. I think that going into the show, that’s all I wanted to do. . . be a 100% true to myself. Then, right when I got there (I don’t know if I’m supposed say in this, but I will anyway), they kind of told me to really keep my heart open and make sure that I wasn’t just going in with just one person in mind. They told me to kind of keep people on their toes and whatnot. And you know, doing that wasn’t true to myself. If I were to go into a regular dating situation, one, I’m not the type of person that just attacks the one I want (meaning, I don’t like to steal girls from others, and I don’t like to step on people’s toes; that doesn’t resonate with me), but, two, I do have more focus. There were one or two girls that I was a little bit more interested in than the others, and I wish I just would’ve explored those relationships right away and not really given too much time to the other opportunities, instead, letting the other situations come naturally. I think because I didn’t do that, it left a lot of people viewing me as what isn’t actually true. Not that I was like viewed in a horrible way, but people in the cast were wondering, like, “Oh, what are his motives?” And in real life that wouldn’t have ever been a scenario or response. So I think my lesson is. . . going into every situation and just being confident in who I am and happy with who I am and really sticking to that, rather than anything that strays away from my authentic self.

With the influence you’ve obtained since the show, what is the most important message you want to share with your followers?

Based on my own life experiences, I think a thing I want to portray to people is that no one’s life is perfect. A lot of people think that the perfect lives they see on Instagram are perfect, or they have this FOMO and feel like they’re just not adequate enough to compare to the person next door or compare to the person on social media and whatnot. And the biggest thing I want to convey to myself, is that I’m right where I’m supposed to be at this moment in my life. And others could and should do the same. I think that people need to take a deep breath, take some more time to themselves, be more kind to themselves, and really just look at themselves like, “Hey, I’m actually an awesome person for [whatever reasons brought you to where you are today].” And to really sink into that feeling and then realize “I’m where I’m supposed to be, and I’m just going to continue to do the best that I can to move forward.” And that’s all that matters. And that translates into both the physical and mental side of things. I think that we just have a really bad mental health crisis right now, and that is because of these comparisons of life or joy. People are comparing themselves more than ever. So with my personal training clients or online clients, I try to have them focus on small improvements rather than looking so much at a huge picture, and I remind them that, even as we’re working on things for tomorrow, they’re right where they’re supposed to be today. We can do something, together, that makes them feel great and push themselves forward, but at the same time, we share gratitude for what we have right now. And I think that mindset leads to a better life.