A relentless pursuit of clients helped him realize his goal, as did his determination to provide them with a training experience far surpassing the standard in terms of focus, commitment, and insight. Because as he got to know his clients, Mitchell quickly evolved from trainer to coach, not only overseeing their fitness programs, but also coaxing them into altering their eating, drinking, and sleep habits to lead healthier, happier, and higher-performing lives.  

Mitchell’s clients did not impress easily, nor were they in the market for a life coach. Tough-minded, affluent professionals, they wanted a trainer to stay fit to maintain their edge. Yet they soon became converts to his comprehensive lifestyle approach to peak performance and fitness. Within two years at Equinox, Mitchell had enough of loyal client base to go independent. And those few clients he lost, he made up for through referrals by his stalwarts to others in their high-powered circles. Before long, Mitchell’s private practice was chock full of New York movers and shakers, whom he trained in some of the city’s most exclusive fitness clubs and private gyms.  

One of those clients, an executive at Balyasny Asset Management (BAM) was such a devotee that he invited Mitchell to develop a corporate wellness program for the firm’s New York office. He believed it might not only improve the health and morale of staff, lowering insurance premiums, but far more significant for the firm, boost the proficiency of key managers. The scope of the assignment and the opportunity if offered to demonstrate how a firm’s productivity might be enhanced through personalized training proved so compelling for Mitchell that he put his private practice on hold to become BAM’s Human Performance Coach. 

Working in a financial hothouse was even more challenging than Mitchell had expected. While adapting to this pressure cooker environment, he had to quickly draw up exercise routines for each of the staff, mixing the latest workout techniques with state-of-the-art technology and tools to aid each individual in training hard and recovering fast. In addition, he devised programs for working out while traveling and regimens for conquering jet lag. He promoted the importance of nutrition, reminding managers that with every bite and sip they took each day, they were either enhancing their mental capacity or diminishing it. Over the next two years, those who committed fully to Mitchell’s personalized protocols hit new career heights. So successful was the program overall that it became a culture changer for the firm. 

Despite his achievements, Mitchell chafed at being part of an office where he was a subsidiary player. At heart, he is an entrepreneur. He missed being in control of his own product and vision, not to mention the intellectual stimulation that comes from working with an array of different kinds of clients. Although the position didn’t suit him for the long term, it did reveal a major business opportunity for a scalable online training platform focused on peak performance that utilized a cutting-edge biometric device Mitchell had begun working with at BAM, which could assess a user’s cardiac and mental readiness before training, and offer workout suggestions tailored to their physiological status at that time. For instance, the data might suggest the central nervous system required stimulation through upregulation or downregulation of particular elements, or that active recovery methods were more appropriate to restore the individual back towards an optimal state. The device enables a client to see how diet, sleep, and lifestyle are affecting their ability to train and perform, and aids them in becoming more in tune with their own physiology. Because this device in combination with his training platform would greatly empower a user’s mental and physical functioning, Mitchell decided to call it Throne. 

He further developed his concept while partnering with Performix House, an invitation-only training facility in New York’s Union Square, where he had resumed his coaching business while also mentoring the club’s young coaches. When the Covid pandemic closed all the gyms, Mitchell had the good fortune to initially be retained by the private equity firm Paine Schwartz Partners, before ultimately taking an in house role to work remotely as their Director of Professional Performance while relocating to work with the CEO on a full time basis. The firm was concerned about how the many uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, and the novel stresses of working from home, might impact the health and functioning of their team, so it requested Mitchell develop a program to provide employees with the necessary tools to maintain, or improve, their personal fitness while at home, and to encourage other areas of self-enhancement through modification of their behavior and routine and the adoption of new productivity techniques. Mitchell recognized it was the perfect opportunity to give his new business concept a go.

As THRONE was working through business modeling, branding, marketing plans, facility design, and fundraising - the world was turned upside down by the Covid pandemic. In 2020 the state of New York was aggressive in shutting down training facilities, and there was much uncertainty around what the future of fitness was going to look like. Mitchell and his team initially decided to begin building a digital product that would serve its users at home with high level, technologically driven training programs while distributing its own brand of at home training equipment. Through the process of that development it was clear that the world was craving in person interaction and the gym was no outlier to that. Mitchell and his team quickly pivoted and focused on signing a lease in one of New York’s premier neighborhoods, the West Village. After signing a lease for the old Peloton space, the team got to work designing and planning the atelier that would serve as a hub of innovation and become a leader in the world of elite personal training. 

Mitchell concurrently oversaw the development of a members mobile application, coaches tablet application, and a desktop application that would function as the management tool for the front desk as well as the backend of all the programming. While executively designing the software he also led the construction of the facility making all major decisions regarding the design and equipment of the facility, building a state of the art training floor and sports science facility across two floors. After the construction of the facility and the development of multiple software systems Mitchell exited his position and left the company he created prior to its launch. 

Mitchell is currently iterating multiple new ideas - harnessing the formidable synergy of nature, science, and technology to serve as a hub for future progress.