Blake Griffin Out, Anthony Davis In

Team USA receives yet another blow due to injury. After losing Dwight Howard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Lamar Odom and Chris Bosh due to various reasons, we have lost one more player. Blake Griffin will undergo surgery for a torn knee meniscus that he suffered in practice. Team USA certainly has the depth but the size is absent. Losing Blake also will bring down the significant amount of alley oops and other momentum changing plays on both ends of the floor. Anthony Davis is Blake’s replacement for now and is likely to be on the team once the official Olympic games begin. I was looking forward to see how Blake would elevate his game against the likes of Spain, Argentina, and Brazil. Blake wasn’t able to play back in the World Championships due to injury, and now you can add the 2012 Olympics to the list.

Blended Entertainment Spotlight

One of the most important aspects about being successful in all of entertainment is staying in shape. Staying in shape is not just limited to athletes. Whether you are or am trying to be a box office star or a recording artist, staying in shape is necessary for perception, performance, and confidence. Behind these performers who understand the value of staying fit, there is someone who is or has inspired them. Today I want to take the opportunity to talk a bit about a personalized fitness company. Castro Fitness is an in-home personal fitness company offering private sessions to get you into great shape. For just a decent price, Castro Fitness’ trainers will come to you with all the equipment necessary to manage you to succeed. It doesn’t just end there, Castro Fitness will tailor workouts and diet plans personally to you. The clientele have included celebrities, athletes, business professionals, and even stay at home parents. The creator and founder of the company, Hamid Castro is qualified as a certified personal trainer as well as achieving a black belt in Karate. He was featured as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs of 2011. I value staying in shape and if you want to get the best quality, stay away from the gyms and get personal 1 on 1 treatment.

I had the pleasure interviewing the leader of Castro Fitness.

History? Experience, education and path to current position? High school and College athlete, Bachelors of Science in Business management from New York University. Currently President and Founder of Castro Fitness, Inc.

Origin of the business? Where did the business idea come from?I started as a personal trainer and enjoyed the results I was giving to my clients, I then wanted to have the workouts I developed used on other people and began to hire other trainers and train them under my wing to make sure they knew my work outs. Resources required? How much money did it require? How did the entrepreneur get the money? My father who was a successful Wall Street broker and taught me how to day trade, at the age of 17 I was able to generate $200k. I was always smart with my money and investing, I never wanted to blow a ton of money just because I had a good idea. I wanted to make sure it was done properly. The start up did not cost more then 10K dollars.

Customer: How did you get (or plan to get) the first few customers? It started as word of mouth in a high end gated community in New York. I then needed to hire more trainers because I could not train the amount of people who wanted to try this new workout everyone was talking about. I realized I can market some more by mailing list and targeting high end clientele. Every client knows someone or is in some type of interesting profession. I would offer a complimentary session and once they tried they were hooked on the workouts.
 
Hurdles?What were the biggest hurdles to date? How did you overcome them? Biggest hurdles was finishing college while managing a successful company. I think reaching out to people is tough and trying to get them to try it is always tough but once they do they are hooked and spread the worth and it eventually hits, Athletes, celebrities, business professionals to stay at home moms.
 
Future Goals? My future goals is to become a house hold name. I want my company to be known for it’s in home personal training and people understand the convenience of this industry. I want to take fitness to another area that most people are unable to tackle. 
 
Castro Fitness’ Official Website
Hamid Castro’s Twitter