It takes a lot of will and ambition to grow a brand from scratch. This would be the case for New Jersey native, Fabian Thorne. From a young man he was determined to be a football player. But it truly manifested when he was in 8th grade and he made a three-part plan for himself to continue to be a football player, become a businessman and take care of his mother. He would play football all the way to the professional level and ran his own business besides looking after his mother.
Fabian would become a business owner, trainer, and an expert in nutrition. He created his own company and brand called Built2Last Fitness Company. Through his company, he has worked with athletes and entertainers on helping them build a better body and mind. He even created a Built2Last, premium alkaline water.
He would soon take his brand and philosophy into speaking engagements nationally. His most important audience is the youth that he is determined to guide on a healthy and productive path. Besides the speaking engagements he has also offered his time to local food pantries and gathering donations for placement in needy communities. Only recently, on the 15th of February he spoke at his alma mater, Delaware State University, which for Fabian was a special and most memorable speaking engagement.
“To be able to go back and give back to the school, speak, and represent the brand and partner with the College of Business, that hit home for me because I had a lot of good times and good years at Delaware State. I accomplished a lot while I was there, so to come back now and partner with them, that was surreal.”
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His brand Built2Last is firmly based on the goal of a healthy mind and body for a fulfilling existence. He has led not only as a speaker but in sports training, boot camps, and personal training sessions. Besides that, he offers his time to A Great Harvest Food Pantry that dedicates itself to helping those in need of nutritious foods. Fabian has helped many kids via his programs, but one does stand out as he mentioned Darryl Davis Jr. Darryl graduated from the University of Penn with a double major in addition to two Masters in sports management. He played football and currently Fabian is still training him for the pros.
His brand Bulit2Last was founded in 2011 but was first on his mind during his college days. The brand is based on enhancing the mind, body and soul through physical fitness, nutritional guidance, and motivational speaking. The brand also encompasses an apparel line one being “You Just Don’t Wake Up Strong” and “We Grind Different”. Fabian also released what became an Amazon Best Selling Author of the daily devotional and motivational guide, “We Grind Different.” There is also his debut memoir “You Just Don’t Wake Up Strong” which discusses his life-threatening illness and his courage and battle to succeed.
To add to the expansion of his brand he assisted in working with the Healthy Olympics in the city of Newark. They went to each ward and put on the Olympics. Fabian helped kids to get warmed up and prepared for each event in the Olympics. Built2Last participated for a few years, supporting Al-Tariq Best, the facilitator for the event. Fabian believes that today’s kids need more guidance because everything is being given to them or shown to them in an accelerated capacity. This younger generation doesn’t want to embrace the journey or embrace the grind.
“Everyone wants things done tomorrow, and that’s not how it works. For you to truly, truly add value to what you have going on, there must be some work put into it. There must be some hardships and failures. You must go through something to get to where you want to be and anything worth having, you’re going to work for it. Nowadays because everything is given to these youth via the internet, they see things happen fast or they think it happens fast. They don’t see what happened behind the scenes and how the people achieved it. And so, for that, our youth is a little bit misguided because they feel entitled, and they haven’t done anything to be entitled. The other thing that is missing from this broken generation is parenting.”
Currently, Fabian is working on putting the finishing touches on a movie script about Built2Last. They have a trailer which was re-shot, but they are working on completing the film. He is also planning on the distribution of his premium alkaline water across America. Aside from those two projects Fabian continues to find new ways to grow his brand and help as many young men and women to become better people who will be able to be an asset to themselves and their communities.
Website – www.fabianthorne.com
