Brandt's Story
Brandt’s Story
Welcome to LLIA!
Thank you for choosing to go on this journey together! I am grateful and excited to work with you all as we move towards your best self and I want to be there when you truly begin living your life in awe.
I take being your Coach seriously. I want the best for you, I agonize over your losses, and I can’t wait for you to taste the sweetness of victory. But victory in life is not always about the wins and losses. It is about growth, learning, loving, making a difference, and achieving goals that are significant to you (even if to no one else). I know about this process.
From the age of three I have been a competition tennis player. And I was good. I loved the game, I learned fast, and I competed hard. By the time I was ten I was playing at a national level of competition! It continued to be my passion during all of my junior years along with baseball and martial arts. I loved my family, there are six of us kids, and my life. But during that time we moved to a new town, I lost my coach, my parents divorced, and our business went upside down - almost bankrupt. If I was counting the win/loss record I don’t think I would have considered that time a victory. But victory was right there.
My family embarked on a new business adventure, one that would change all of our lives, and I continued my tennis passion by also teaching and coaching the sport. I loved fitness, health, nutrition, training, teaching, and coaching. I lived it, and I taught it! But just a few years later I had a major health crash that was unexpected and confusing. For six years I battled pain, loss of muscle function, severe mental confusion, and crushing fatigue. As much as I battled those issues I battled the questions inside of me. If I wasn't the player, the coach, the teacher, or the person that could always do what someone needed done, who has I? Did I have a purpose beyond the things that I could do? What was my identity based on? What if I never again could be the person that I once was?
Not knowing what is happening and not knowing if the situation will ever change is incredibly difficult as anyone who has gone through something like that can tell you. It can create a sense of hopelessness or cause us to question everything that we once thought we knew.
Thankfully in my story there was an answer and a new start. Thanks to God and to some amazing people that came into my life the issue was sorted out and I made my way back to “real life”!
During that time and afterwards I spent 11 years coaching high school tennis. I am now coaching tennis at an academy in Southern California that trains junior players for top level tournaments, international tournaments, college teams, and professional tournaments.
That business that my family began doing after the “crash” became a full time income for myself and Patti and I have spent time in Canada, Puerto Rico, the U.K., France, Australia, and New Zealand building that business. I have spoken to large and small groups, consulted and trained individuals, and experienced people and cultures from all over the world.
Since that “dark time” I have become a husband and a father and that adventure is unlike any other that I have begun. This is truly the adventure of a lifetime and not just my lifetime. Like many of you I am working my way through the questions of what comes next, how can I be the person that my family needs me to be, how can I find balance and significance? What is true significance and where does it come from?
I am so glad that we will be walking this process together!
I will say that going through what is called a “dark night of the soul” time it is not entirely a bad thing. It is not actually a lost time. That experience brings incredible clarity as it strips away the masks that are used to hide us, from others and even from ourselves. In the end we stand with no pretense and confront the raw truth. If I can help you find that clarity without the pain and struggle of six years, I will count my time in the “Wins” column.
In gratitude,
Brandt Roney
*If you need a Therapist, Psychologist, or Medical Professional, please make that appointment for yourself. That is not our expertise.
