“The more I have on my plate, the more disciplined and structural I can be. Because if I have only one free hour of my day, I get to decide, with the snap of my fingers, do I work out, am I going to do what I’m supposed to do? Where if I have five free hours I can do just kind of whatever and sometimes things don’t get done. I found myself very structured in my senior year, and I needed that next thing, that next goal, and I enrolled in a half-marathon.”

“I remember calling my boss in my office, and saying I have something I need to talk to you about, and then I just started crying. And he already knew, because he had watched me be really passionate about fitness and things, and he said, “You’re leaving.” And I lied to him. I was so afraid to say that, “Oh yeah, I have this online coaching business that’s doing great.” Kind of out of fear of judgement; I was afraid to hear what I was afraid of. I was afraid he was going to say, “That’s crazy.” All of the things that I was afraid of, so instead I said, “Yeah, I’m opening a gym.” And he’s like, “Oh yeah, congrats. Blah blah blah.” And I did go on to open that gym a few months later but that’s an entire other story, where we have a business that actually failed. I felt safe telling him that I’m opening this gym, because you know what that means, and you won’t judge me for that. So I took the leap from there and haven’t looked back a single day, although I still do have nightmares eight years later that I still work for that company, that I still have a corporate job, and that I never said no.”

“One of the biggest areas I dive into is “Why? Why do you want to do this?” Well, we’ll talk about their goals, and they’ll tell me that they want to lose twenty pounds, look good in a bikini, whatever. And it’s just really important to me that I know why. Because if it’s predicated off of some “I’ll be happy when…”, I’m never going to help you. That’s never going to happen. Really, happiness does not come from a clothing size, or a number on the scale. If I can’t help shift that mindset on the first call, we’re just going to be in for it. So I ask for why, and if I get a surface level answer, I ask for layers deep. I joke with them: I say, “Hey, I’m going to be such a pain in your butt right now, but I really just need to know why this is important to me. I’m going to have to hold you to the fire.” The answers I usually get from those that realise that there is more outside of happiness than just changing their bodies a certain way, are usually something the lines of, they want to show up outwardly like how they feel inside.”

“Service is putting the client first, and just really being there and holding that space for what they need. There’s the cliché quote that, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” So I think its on the human level, showing up in whatever capacity that they [client] need, caring for them as an individual… [keep skipped part]. I think that’s service. I don’t think you can serve people until you really kind of know their heart and what they’re about.”

“I am very motivated by responsibility, and I’ve realised lately, especially, I’m passionate about fitness and health and always will be, but its not my entire life anymore. So I’ve noticed stagnation in the fitness business, because I’m not purely pulled by passion. But what I am pulled by is responsibility. So we hired a few new assistant coaches over there, and all of a sudden I’m like, “Cool. Let’s get clients, let’s make money, let’s change people’s lives, and bring them in.” Because I know their passion carries, and I’m passionate about helping people and having other responsibilities.”

“I started doing some off the side personal training. Again, it was what the market would ask for next. I’d have woman in my spinning classes say, “Could you help me with my diet? Can you help me individually?” And I would just continue to say yes, even though I really wasn’t sure what that looked like, how to do it. And then eventually, through documenting my journey online, enough people said, “I really wish I could work with you, but you’re too far away from me.” I said, “You know, I think we could probably figure that out. Let’s just go back and forth, see what your current routine is and what it looks like.” And that’s when I really started training people online.”