No Pain, No Gain
Crowdfire Spotlight: From struggling engineer to professional athlete, body-builder, and YouTube fitness instructor — this is Nuno Feliciano’s story.
Nuno Feliciano may have the intimidating exterior of a body-builder and fitness model, but this 30-year old personal trainer is all heart, soul, and wide smiles.
He’s a member of the IFBB (International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness), a non-profit that has produced the likes of Lou Ferrigno (the “Incredible Hulk”) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (the “Terminator”).
Born in Lisbon, Portugal and raised in the small municipality of Amadora, Nuno zig-zagged several career paths before landing in an unconventional role — one he never envisioned.
One and the same
Nuno is a twin and speaks of the deep connection he shares with his brother, Pedro; it’s something that’s stuck with them throughout their lives. “My parents told me I had meningitis as a baby. When they were sticking needles in me to drain fluid in the hospital, they told me that Pedro would start crying at home at the same moment I would, as if he was feeling my pain.”
Perhaps because of their deep connection, the two brothers found similar passions and pursued sport and physical activities while growing up. Nuno took up swimming, cycling, football, and volleyball in school.
But he never let academics suffer. Influenced by his architect father, he was interested in the sciences and worked hard at Physics, Chemistry, and Maths. This is where the brothers’ paths diverged — Pedro found his calling in Economics while Nuno headed towards engineering.
However, picking a career was not easy for Nuno. He recalls the 9/11 attack which left a huge impact on him. He remembers feeling fortunate that it didn’t happen in Portugal and deciding he wanted to defend his country from any attack.
So when he graduated, Nuno thought of applying to the military academy in Portugal. He found their lifestyle really appealing, since he had a particular affinity for testing his physical strength and embarking on adventurous activities.
But he discovered the academy had downsides he couldn’t live with — he’d have to stop going to church, suspend his driver’s licence, and forego the sporting activities he’d enjoyed so much. Besides, he’d have to spend seven years to get his degree from the academy compared to five at a university. After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to study civil engineering at one of the best universities in Portugal.
Still figuring it out
Nuno’s passion for fitness had started growing while he was training for the physical tests needed for the military academy. At university, he found he had a lot of time on his hands to study more about nutrition and physical activity.
He exercised regularly, read lots of books and articles, and dove deep into what would eventually be his vocation in life. He found the discipline to grow without anyone telling him what to do.
But it would be a while before Nuno figured out what exactly he wanted to do with his life.
“I can draw a line through all the dots that led me to where I am right now.”
His devotion to health led him to look up fitness videos online… but he only found content in English, not Portuguese. Finding a dearth of material, he decided to make his own and started a channel on YouTube — first as a hobby, and as time progressed, as his livelihood.
Meanwhile, unable to cope with the advanced courses despite all his effort, he found his grades dropping at the university. “I think of myself as a perfectionist — I like to put all my heart into everything I do. But the university was really demanding.”
Used to having top-notch grades in school, he struggled with the realization that maybe his hard work and dedication might not be enough. Despite that, he’s grateful for the challenges the university offered him.
One size fits none
A bout of bad luck, which in hindsight Nuno would regard as good luck, came calling right after graduation. The financial crisis hit Portugal hard - construction was halted across the country and civil engineering jobs were hard to come by. He was again faced with two choices — stay in Portugal and find work or emigrate to another place and start a new life there.
But Nuno loved his home. He was planning to marry and start a family soon, and he wanted to raise his children in his own country. So he decided to stay and try his luck. He picked up a few projects handed to him by one of his professors but it wasn’t continuous work and hardly afforded a steady flow of income.
Looking for job security, he turned to his brother, Pedro, who was working at a financial services company and planning to leave soon. His brother taught him the ropes, and within three weeks Nuno was ready to join.
His tenure at the company lasted nine months, during which he was paid peanuts for the work he put in, and that too all under the counter. “They were abusing my good will, so I had to leave,” he shrugs.
He then found work at the Champalimaud Foundation, where he worked as a team leader in the insurance department. A private biomedical research foundation, it is considered one of the most exciting centres of medical research. Nuno would spend the next two years of his life working at the Foundation before he’d come to another crossroads.
Chasing dreams
Despite all the career hopping, Nuno continued to upload fitness videos on YouTube, steadily growing the channel and making a name for himself. He had started getting a small percentage of his income from his online efforts while posting once every two or three days. Soon enough, Prozis, now the biggest online supplement store in Europe, approached him for a partnership.
All Nuno had to do was make videos for Prozis to post on YouTube and help them grow their business. He would score a percentage of the profits in return. This partnership would keep bearing fruit long after he first signed on, with Nuno drawing regular cheques from Prozis. Despite this eventual success, he is grateful for all the tough times he had to go through.
“Good times are great, they make us feel better. But adversities and obstacles, they help you grow and get better.” Nuno relishes challenges now, stating that he has a lot more to learn from his struggles than from his triumphs.
He credits the widening of his audience and his understanding of online business to the work with Prozis. He’s now able to sell nutrition and exercise plans online and has even written an ebook that helps people build their own fitness plan from start to finish.
Now happily married, Nuno is the father of a 2 year old with another baby on the way, due in November this year. Ultimately it was his decision to stay back in his country that took him down the path of fitness, transforming a hobby into his livelihood.
“I live the American dream in Portugal. I do what I love and get paid for it.”
Should I quit my day job?
As he reached the two year mark at the Champalimaud Foundation, Nuno found himself thinking again of the choices he had to make. By this time, his fitness business was earning him as much as his salary from the Foundation. And he was unhappy going to work every single day, constantly looking forward to weekends, wondering when he could take his next holiday.
For Nuno, fitness remained his passion and now that he had found financial security with it, he wanted to quit his day job. But it was a difficult decision. Married and with a son, quitting would cut his income in half. Yet he had a gut feeling that focusing all his effort on growing his fitness brand would be the right thing to do.
So with a lot of love and support from his family, Nuno left the Champalimaud Foundation. He now had the freedom to pursue his deepest passion — helping people be better versions of themselves through fitness.
Even so, it wasn’t an easy ride. Becoming a fitness instructor on YouTube had its own set of struggles. Among other things, he had to learn to create and edit his videos himself. Recording the videos itself took him a lot of time, since he found it difficult to talk to the camera.
He was so nervous, he never smiled — this was the feedback he received from caring viewers. Working by himself, he struggled with finding the best camera angles, getting the best shots, filming the exercises… something that became even harder with crying kids in the house.
He hired someone to help him with his videos, to bring a professional quality to his work, but he let him go after six months. “In my experience, people do like good edits and well-shot films, but they like it better when people are personal, like family videos or natural looking videos, more than commercial productions.”
Now with nearly twenty thousand subscribers, Nuno’s created a great community on YouTube. In fact, his fans give him free music to use as soundtracks and free tools to edit videos and measure analytics, leaving him incredibly grateful for their generosity and continued support.
The most important thing
Nuno’s main objective has always been to help people. “In Portugal, we are seeing an increase in diabetes, cardiovascular problems, obesity and more. I’m trying to change people’s minds and to encourage them to get outside — to run and walk and move their bodies.”
He’s heard from a lot of people that they don’t have the time to exercise or prepare their own meals, mostly because they spend all their time at work or on social media. This really worries him.
“Most people forget that the most important thing in life is not euros, dollars or pounds. It’s time.”
But the main problem Nuno identified is prioritization, noting that the priorities people define for themselves are often wrong. “You won’t live forever. The only certainty is that we die. So we have to get our time to work for us, not against us.” He’s a strong believer in learning as much as you can and sharing everything you know with as many people as you can reach. “I’m just trying to be a better person every day. If I can change one person’s life, they can change ten more lives.”
Nuno’s love and passion for fitness is as ebullient as his personality. Though he had to work in civil engineering, finance, and insurance to start with, he’s now a personal trainer, fitness model, bodybuilder, and Prozis athlete. All because he never gave up his love for fitness and kept pursuing it with dogged determination. For Nuno, every positive and negative experience has played a significant part in his life, leading him to where he is now. And he wouldn’t want it any other way. 💪💥
You can find Nuno on his Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Website.
