By JEREMY COX
When asked what their weaknesses are, most people probably wouldn't know how to begin to reply, or they might become defensive. David Essel, however, answers without hesitation.
"I think for myself as well as the rest of humanity the areas we need to work on the most are having faith in our spiritual path and releasing doubt," says Essel in a characteristically upbeat voice, as he sits at the dining room table of his Gainesville home.
"I'm getting better at this," he continues, "but my goal is to be at a place where if I hit a snag in a personal relationship or career or whatever that I walk through it knowing there is a better way being found."
If Essel sounds philosophical, that's because it's part of his livelihood. As an author, motivational speaker and television show host, the 44-year-old had spent much of his life helping other people find answers to their deepest concerns.
Self-help is Essel's specialty. He was the host of a nationally syndicated radio program for nine years and has written two books: the autobiographical "Phoenix Soul" and a children's book, "The Real Life Adventures of Catherine 'Cat' Calloway." Under a recent deal with the publishing company Hay House, Essel has three more books in the works.
His already impressive resume will receive yet another notch as his new television show, "Real Life with David Essel," is currently aired on Cox Channel 8 in Gainesville, FL, with near future plans to air on Cox affiliates around the country. The show, a new version of which will run every other Tuesday, will feature interviews with fitness and alternative medicine experts, reports on self-help topics and advice from Essel, says Alex Patton, local sales manager for Cox Communications.
"We are very excited about the show," Patton says. "It's going to be a half-hour geared to (Essel's) unique way of helping people change their lives."
COACHING NEW LIVES
While Essel emphasizes that he's proud of all his endeavors, the way he has made his greatest impact he says has been working with people individually as a personal lifestyle coach.
Essel meets with two to four clients a day for hour-long sessions, either over the phone or in person at his office at the Gainesville Health and Fitness Center on Newberry Road. During that hour, he listens and asks questions that will help his clients figure out the direction they want their lives to take, he says.
"My role," explains Essel, "is to be a mirror. In one hour of listening to someone who's challenged, who's struggling, who's hurting, who's unsure, I don't have to say much to allow them to see how incredible and intelligent they are."
It's a way to have a direct, positive impact on the world," he adds.
Ten years ago, Essel, who has a master's degree in sports science from the United States Sports Academy in Daphne, AL, became one of the first to enter the burgeoning profession of lifestyle coaching. After years of working as a fitness instructor and motivational speaker, he found that he had only been focusing his therapeutic powers
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What was missing? The soul.
Essel was not alone in his discovery. Over the last decade, lifestyle coaching has boomed as people — particularly business professionals — have sought to get ahead in life (find higher-paying jobs, more fulfilling personal relationships, feel less stress, etc.) through personal improvement. According to a recent article in USA Today: "If it was financial planners in the '70s and fitness trainers in the '80s, the man to have in the '90s is a personal coach."
"I FELT ALIVE AGAIN"
For Essel, coaching is more than just a fad. People can accomplish anything, he says, as long as they are empowered.
Across from Essel at the table is one of his success stories, Ardith Bissinger. After listening to Essel give a motivational speech at a Holiday Inn in Gainesville last October, Bissinger met with him for an hour of personal coaching. What she learned from him changed her life, the Gainesville woman says.
"It's difficult putting into words what he did for me. Something he said or did must have just clicked," says Bissinger, who has been Essel's personal assistant since January. "When I came to see him, I'd lost a bunch of family members. It has been four years of pure hell. After his seminar, I felt alive again."
She says she also has lost 50 pounds since meeting him, thanks to exercise and better eating habits.
"I'm still a ways from where I want to be," concedes Bissinger, "but I'm going in the right direction."
Such personal improvement does come with a price. While Essel's pay scale is based on the number of session he has with a client, a one-time, one-hour session with a 30-minute follow up telephone session seven days later costs $140.
Joe Cirulli has been Essel's friend for more than 10 years and is owner of the Gainesville Health and Fitness Center. The reason Essel is able to have such an impact on people's lives, Cirulli says, is that he is a great listener.
"David has a lot of empathy, and people like David can listen to your words and listen to how you say thins. Having David as your friend is like having a puppy: "Whenever he sees you, he's happy to see you," notes Cirulli.
TURNING HIS OWN LIFE AROUND
As a result of his work, Essel has not only seen other people's lives turn around, but also his own. He has battled back several times from financial disaster and personal loss. Explaining the failures and misfortune he has endured, he is quick to point out the positive aspects each situation offered.
Says Essel: "If it is a failure, but you pick up an amazing lesson, then is it a failure? I don't look at any of those things anymore as negative."
For example, on the day he planned to open an aerobics studio in New York in 1982, his main financial backer pulled out. Essel scrambled to save the studio, but after four months he was forced to declare bankruptcy. At the same time his studio was crumbling, his marriage of less than a year fell apart.
From the ashes of his failed business venture, Essel
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combined his two loves, public speaking and fitness, to become a successful motivational speaker. Between 1986 and 1990, he toured the country 40 weeks a year, discussing the benefits of exercise and stress management.
Ironically, as he told others about the virtues of lowering stress, Essel's own life couldn't have been more chaotic. Working in front of large audiences gave him an immense high. While offstage, he says he replaced that feeling with cocaine. After five or six years of "playing around" with the drug, Essel says he found the will to quit.
THE SPIRITUAL PATH
On Essel's left wrist are 11 sets of beads of different colors, each signifying what he has to be thankful for: love, wealth, strength, optimism, spirituality and more.
"Every day when I put them on, I voice to myself and to God what they mean to me, and I ask for me to be more guided in every area that these represent. It's a morning ritual," he explains.
Because Essel has faith in where his spiritual path will lead him, he often makes important decisions based on what seems like a whim, which he calls a "hit." He says he received one such "hit" last October while driving home for the Holiday Inn seminar in Gainesville.
Literally and metaphorically, Essel had reached a crossroads in his life. After years of hosting a syndicated radio call-in show with Westwood One, the program had been canceled due to the company's financial problems. Afterward, Essel spent the next few months doing almost nothing except walking on the beach and writing his thoughts in a journal. He was waiting for his calling, he says.
As he sat on the off-ramp at I-75 and Newberry Road waiting for the light to change, on a corner shared by a Chevron gas station and Bed Bath and Beyond, Essel's life changed. Something told him he had found his new home.
"I kept getting this feeling that there was this energy in Gainesville that I just had to move here," Essel says. He immediately sold his beach house and bought a home on an acre of land in Gainesville.
THE LATEST EVOLUTION
Soon afterward, he landed another radio program at The Sky 97.3 FM in Ocala. Airing Saturday afternoons, the show built a loyal following but was canceled in June.
Once again, Essel has moved forward. His new television show began airing Tuesday and he is working on a book about his personal philosophy.
As for the future, Essel has no problem saying he will go where life takes him. "My dream," he says, "is to have the most positive impact on the world as I can. As for how that happens, I'm leaving that up to God."
After all, it has worked so far.
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