Founder’s Motivation

The Founder’s Motivation – Tragedy Turns to Grace

Growing Up – From Tragedy to Triumph
Damien and his 2 sisters were raised primarily by their grandmother, Claudine Woodson and his father, Ronald Woodson of Ft Wayne, Indiana.

Granny
His grandmother, affectionately known as “Granny”, was an exceptional cook from Little Rock, Arkansas.  Granny cooked 6 days a week including huge Sunday dinners that everyone looked forward to.  Though he loved his grandmother and his dad very much, he noticed the toll their lifestyles took on their overall health.  His dad was not active, smoked and drank on a regular basis and Granny was a chain smoker.  No amount of pushing and prodding from he and his sisters could get their grandmother to even take a walk around the block.  As a result, she became ill with diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol.  Her medicine cabinet had a tray FULL of medication that only got bigger as the years passed.  Though she was very smart and good with people she became disabled, unable to keep her well paying job with the state.  She passed away of congestive heart failure in her 60’s.

Dad
Damien’s dad, Ron Woodson, was a Vietnam Vet and supervisor of the local post office. His career experience also included professional disc jockey and TV cameraman. He remembers his dad making virtually every football, basketball game and track meet he was in locally and all over the country. Though he was a professional photographer part-time, he’d often forget to take pictures because he was busy cheering him on. His dad stopped playing basketball around his late thirties and never became active again. Inactivity and a hard fast life of drugs and alcohol lead to lower back pain and other health issues that ended his life early at age 46.

How Damien Handled the Tragedies in His Life
At a very young age, Damien witnessed the large drug deals, parties and drug abuse that lead to his father’s death and vowed never to head down that road.

At age 10, he started playing little league football.  He later picked up track and basketball.  He was very athletic and really enjoyed being active.  His desire to live healthy became apparent when he came home his junior year of high school and told his grandmother he wouldn’t be eating eggs anymore because they were high in cholesterol.

The Foundation for Professional Success
After high school, Damien went on to play college football and basketball.  Between seasons he coached youth basketball clinics for Lorenzo Romar at Pepperdine College, Magic Johnson and Byron Scott.

One day while dropping a teammate off at work in downtown LA, his friend shared that he was a personal trainer for 24-hour fitness and how he helped get people fit.  Damien’s response was, “They pay you to do that?  I do that for free all the time!”

The booster on his basketball team offered to pay for half his certification and set him up with an internship in West Hollywood with a celebrity trainer.

Giving Back
There were 9 of us living in my grandmother’s small 2 bedroom house where the living room coach was my bed every night. No matter how bad it got, I would always think about how the kids in 3rd world countries were suffering and how I wanted to help. Today, I am able to sponsor kids in disadvantaged countries. My commitment is to sponsor more and more kids as our company serves more and more people.

Tatiana Garcia (12) & Henry Rios (7) of Nicaragua are 2 of the kids Core Motivation Fitness sponsors now.

True Success
Around the time of his intern in LA, Damien rededicated his life to Christ.  “The truth is that when I was at my highest in the worlds’ eyes, I was at my lowest spiritually and emotionally. I had more money than ever, my dream truck and everyone around me looking up to me because I was so young with a successful business and real estate.  I thought success would give me peace, joy and healing from everything I had been through but it didn’t.  And once I reached the top according to the word’s standards I felt hopeless because there was nothing else I could do.

Now I have more peace, joy and happiness than any other time in my life  because of my relationship with Jesus Christ.