Andie Vowles on his sporting career and the decision to write a book about fitness (BSL)

Hi everyone, my name is Andie Vowles and I am based in the North West of England. I am profoundly Deaf from birth and use British Sign Language and New Zealand Sign Language.

Growing up, I was mainly oral until around 16 yrs old when I went to a Deaf Club in Auckland, New Zealand for the first time. That is when I picked up sign language within 6 months and started to join the Deaf Community and take part in social activities.

I was mostly hanging out with older Deaf people as I felt they were someone I could look up to and ask questions to. At the time I was slightly confused as to the difference between mixing in the Hearing world and Deaf world. Then this one person described what identity means and encouraged me to look at what it means to me as a person.

The way this person described it was like opening yourself up to look inside and see who you are and which world you belong to. That is when I realised – I belonged to the Deaf Community because communication was accessible and I felt so relaxed.

Born in Australia, I grew up as an all rounder sporty person. I represented an athletic club in my early teens and even joined a basketball club so throughout schooling all the way to High School, I mainly played basketball.

I even went on to represent New Zealand and Australia at the World Games for the Deaf & Deaflympics in 1989, 1997 and 2005.  Career wise, I wanted to work in a fitness/sport industry hence why I completed a course to become a Fitness Instructor and then went on to do a Sports Coaching Degree.

Looking back when I did the Fitness Instructor course, during class time I did extremely well and the teacher was impressed. However, when it came to the exam – one of the compulsory elements was being able to show you can do an aerobic workout to music. I told them I couldn’t do this and they responded to say if I didn’t then I would fail my exam and not become fully qualified as Fitness Instructor.

During my fitness journey, being a sports player was never an issue for me and I was often able to join in and play the game very well. However, there have been times where I was put on the bench, sometimes because the coach was unable to communciate clearly with me. Yet as soon I joined the Deaf community, I was able to participate fully and they wanted me to play full time.

I have always wanted to work within the fitness and sport industry, but due to a lack of experience on the practical side, I have always felt I have a lot of knowledge to share. Since taking part in a training platform that has mentors, I learnt how to set up an online business and one mentor even said to me – why not write a book?

I thought to myself, what could I write? This suggestion gave me the confidence to spill the knowledge of what I have learnt over the years. I also thought it would be good to have a passive/ side hustle income that can grow.

Writing was difficult to start with. There was so much to think about – what should I talk about? What should I explain? What could I cover? I didn’t want to bore people when reading and wanted to make it a fun approach for people so that they would take on board the information I shared, and do with it what they wanted.

I had an BSL Interpreter help translate and clarify what I had written and I also used AI for guidance to ensure what I wanted to say was coming across. AI was great for creating bespoke images!

At first I didn’t know what to do or how to write because it was was so new for me but I thought if I don’t try I will never know. So I asked AI to give me topic ideas by explaining what I wanted to write about.

Then I took a break as I was still navigating the learning process for my online business. Finally in September, I thought I have got to start catching up and get the book completed! I just wrote a few paragraphs each week on the days I wasn’t working.

My BSL Interpreter would help out for clarity and was also able to ask the correct prompts on AI for pictures. AI is useful but also frustrating because of my level of English so when asking a prompt it is not always clear.

Through the book, I wanted to share that when it comes to dieting and exercise, it is mainly through the ‘MINDSET’ that achievement is made. A lot of people will stick to a diet for few weeks or months then drop out and do nothing til the following year as a habit that repeats itself.

Exercise is always a difficult part too but people are not always aware what a huge difference it can make. I wanted to explain this and suggest workouts to help people. That way they can choose to try them out or take away some tips and adjust things to suit their own way.

I hope to inspire deaf people who wish to learn. I am also more than happy to have a general chat regarding to exercises and nutrition with other deaf people too.

And if you’re thinking about writing a book, I can imagine you may also feel scared and excited like I was too. I would encourage you to just write what you would like to share, whether it’s about your hobbies, education, or even drawings and colouring books, for example!

There is nothing stopping you! It is free to upload to Amazon KDP, the only thing you need to give up is your time that it takes to write a book. Whether it takes few weeks, months or a year – that does cost you but it is free to upload and let the commissions roll in. I’ve sold 7 books since it was launched and it is an amazing feeling to have.

I am currently working two part time jobs, whilst building my online business with Amazon and Properties, I plan to write another book about my business brand.  Outside of work I love to travel and pretty much do anything I can while I can.

By Andie Vowles.

Andie’s book ‘Did I Eat That?’ can be found on Amazon here.