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Meet The Team Behind MakeWaves
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Real coaches. Real support. A team committed to helping you build a healthier lifestyle that lasts.
It All Started With A Simple Mission...
Our story
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MakeWaves was founded in 2016 with one simple goal: to make fitness and fat loss easier to understand, easier to follow, and easier to maintain.
Over the years, we've seen firsthand how overwhelming the fitness industry can make getting healthy feel. Restrictive diets, complicated workout plans, conflicting information, and all-or-nothing approaches leave too many people feeling like they're constantly starting over.
We wanted to create something different.
Our approach is built around personalized coaching, education, accountability, and creating a plan that works with your life—not against it. Because getting healthier shouldn't require putting the rest of your life on hold.
Today, we've had the opportunity to help over 1,000 people build healthier habits, become stronger and more confident, and create results they can actually maintain.
And while MakeWaves has grown over the years, our mission has stayed the same:
Make fitness simple, sustainable, and something you can enjoy for life.
Meet The Coaches
Matt
Hey there! I’m Matt, Founder and Head Coach of Team MakeWaves. I was born and raised in New Jersey, and if you ask me, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll never leave. The Jersey Shore will always have a special place in my heart! Sports have been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I played just about anything I could, eventually continuing my athletic career as a college lacrosse player at Eastern University, where I was fortunate enough to be part of three MAC Championship teams. But it was during college that fitness started becoming much more than something I simply enjoyed doing. At the time, I was competing in Men’s Physique shows and documenting my journey on social media. As more people began following along, I started getting messages asking for help with workouts, nutrition, weight loss, posing—you name it. So I started helping. I shared free workout plans, answered nutrition questions, helped people with their training, and offered whatever advice I could. Before long, people started reaching back out to tell me about the weight they had lost, the confidence they had gained, and how much better they felt. And I was hooked. Not on bodybuilding or competing—but on helping people realize what they were capable of. That passion led me to start Team MakeWaves in 2016, and what began as me simply wanting to help as many people as possible has grown into something I never could have imagined. Since then, our team has had the opportunity to coach over 1,000 people with all different backgrounds, lifestyles, and goals. Along the way, my own philosophy around fitness has evolved too. My years of competing taught me a lot about training and nutrition, but coaching everyday people taught me something even more important: you shouldn't have to build your entire life around fitness to get great results. You should be able to go out to dinner. Take vacations. Enjoy weekends with your family. Have a drink with your friends. Miss a workout every once in a while without feeling like you've ruined everything. Fitness should make your life better—not take it over. That's the philosophy behind Team MakeWaves today. We're here to simplify the process, take away the guesswork, and give you the plan, education, accountability, and support you need to create results that actually last. And when I'm not coaching or working out, there's a pretty good chance you'll find me down the shore with a rum cocktail in hand, grabbing a meal with my wife Taylor, or unsuccessfully trying to convince myself that this will finally be the round where I figure out my golf swing.
Taylor
Hi! I’m Taylor, a coach here at Team MakeWaves—and Matt’s wife! Health has been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember, although my journey with it started a little differently than most. I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at just 10 years old and Celiac Disease at 16. From an early age, I had to learn how nutrition, movement, and the choices I made each day could directly impact how I felt. But I never wanted those diagnoses to define what I was capable of. I stayed active throughout my childhood, played volleyball in high school, and went on to play during my freshman year at Eastern University, where I studied nursing and graduated first in my nursing program in 2016. After graduation, I began my career as a NICU nurse in Philadelphia. Around that same time, I also found myself becoming more involved in the fitness world and eventually began competing in bodybuilding. I spent years learning about training and nutrition, and in 2018, I stepped on stage and nationally qualified in the NPC. Bodybuilding taught me an incredible amount about discipline, nutrition, and what the human body is capable of—but it also helped shape the way I view health today. Eventually, my goals shifted away from chasing extremes and toward finding something I could maintain in real life. I wanted to feel strong and confident, prioritize my health, and work toward my goals while still being able to enjoy dinner out, travel, spend time with the people I love, and live my life. And once I found that balance for myself, I knew I wanted to help other people find it too. My professional career eventually led me to Penn Medicine, where I worked as a Diabetes Educator in an outpatient diabetes center. Between my own experiences and my background in nursing and education, I've developed a deep appreciation for just how individual each person's health journey can be. That's something I bring into my coaching every day. I believe education is one of the most powerful tools we can give our clients. I don't want to simply tell you what to eat or what workout to complete—I want to help you understand the why behind what you're doing, learn how to make confident decisions for yourself, and build habits that you can carry with you long after coaching ends. For me, success isn't about being perfect. It's about finding an approach to health and fitness that makes you feel your best while still allowing you to enjoy the life you're working so hard to build. Outside of coaching, I love spending time with my family, cooking, reading, prioritizing a little self-care, and making time for my faith.
Andrew
Hey there! I’m Andrew, a coach here at Team MakeWaves! Sports and fitness have been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I played volleyball, ran track, and competed in soccer before eventually having the opportunity to continue my soccer career in college. During that time, I was fortunate enough to be part of a team that won three MAC Conference Championships and made a run to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. But my passion for fitness really started before all of that. In high school, I realized that if I wanted to compete at a higher level, simply showing up to practice wasn't going to be enough. I needed to become stronger, faster, and better conditioned—and that realization sparked my curiosity about training, nutrition, and everything that goes into improving the way we perform and feel. What started as a way to become a better athlete quickly turned into something much bigger. The more I learned, the more fascinated I became with what our bodies are capable of when we consistently give them the right training, nutrition, and habits. Eventually, that passion shifted from simply wanting to improve myself to wanting to help other people experience those same changes. I've now been training for over 10 years, and one thing that hasn't changed is my desire to keep learning. I'm constantly looking for ways to expand my knowledge of training and nutrition so I can continue becoming a better coach for the people I work with. More recently, I've developed a passion for hybrid training—combining strength training with running and endurance work to build a body that's not only strong, but capable. I currently spend a lot of my own training balancing time in the weight room with running and challenging myself to improve across both strength and endurance. That experience has only reinforced something I believe strongly as a coach: fitness can look different for everyone. Whether your goal is to lose weight, get stronger, run your first race, improve your performance, or simply feel better in everyday life, the best approach is one that fits you. As a coach, I love meeting people where they are, giving them a clear plan, and helping them build the consistency and confidence to accomplish things they may not have thought were possible when they first started. That's one of the things I love most about being part of Team MakeWaves. We're not here to make fitness your entire life. We're here to help you use fitness to make your life better. When I'm not coaching or training, you'll usually find me outside. I love hunting, fishing, golfing, spending time with my wife, and volunteering at my church.