I got incredibly lucky. I had been working part-time as a personal trainer at a boutique training studio my junior and senior year of college. When I graduated, one of the trainers decided to take a job elsewhere, so I picked up his clients and started working there full-time. My boss and I got along famously, and it was such a great job to help me hone in on how I wanted my career to move forward.

One of my earliest memories (I was about seven) was popping in a Richard Simmons or Cindy Crawford workout video and following along. My mom worked for a video distribution company so we always had a ton of them lying around. Having danced my whole life, I loved moving and exercising (and sweatin’ to the oldies), and as I got older I wanted to know the best ways to fuel my body, so I started reading a ton about nutrition, and started working for a gym when I was 16. I used to go and work there at 5:00 a.m. before I went to school.

My first big step in going pro was when I got my National Academy of Sports Medicine personal training certification. I did that right after I graduated from high school through the gym where I was working. It gave me a huge leg up when I went to college. I trained and taught exercise classes through all four years and that really gave me the confidence to teach a wide variety of different populations. A year after graduating, I moved to Portland, Oregon where I did my internship to earn my RD (registered dietitian) certification. Having a background in both exercise and nutrition has really shaped how I approach my clients now, and having started in the industry at such a young age puts me in the double digits for years of experience under my belt—I can hardly believe that!

This website is the result of a small blog I started about three years ago. After a few facelifts, name changes and logo designs, I realized that I wanted to be my brand. I wanted to create a place where people could come to get wellness advice from me, and (hopefully soon) some other contributors.

Now I’ve also added a variety of options for people to book private sessions for nutrition coaching, personal training and cooking instruction with me. I think the most unique thing I’m offering is that all of these services can be booked virtually (via FaceTime or Skype), so there’s no geographical limit to working with new clients—that’s really exciting to me.

Growth is slow and steady. I have yet to see exponential growth, but that’s not to say it won’t happen!

No two days are ever the same, especially since right now I am working a full-time job as a Marketing Manager at a Whole Foods Market and building my own business. 

I’ll give you a peek into last Thursday.

7:00 a.m.: Workout in my apartment

8:00 a.m.: Shower/get dressed

9:00 a.m.: Breakfast and coffee

10:00 a.m.: Taped this interview

11:00 a.m.: Wrote and published my weekly blog post and newsletter

12:30 p.m.: In-home nutrition coaching session with a new client.

2:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.: Went to work at my full-time job

That was a busy day! Not all days are this jam packed, but they can be. No matter what I have going on in the week, I always publish my blog post and newsletter on Thursdays. I hold onto that as my golden nugget of consistency while starting this business. 

Using any sort of video-chatting application has really been a game-changer for my industry. A few years ago, I was on a wild search to rent an office space so I could have a place to see clients. Now, the general population is a lot more comfortable with using smart phones and tablets. I can just get on FaceTime or Skype, and coach people from my kitchen table or couch! 

The other great tool I just installed is a payment and scheduling software called Mindbody Online. So far it’s awesome! It eliminates a lot of the back-and-forth that I used to have to manage in order to schedule clients or chase payments. It’s great for anybody with an appointment or class-based business model.

I decided to start doing a few videos for a few reasons. First, people respond a lot better to visuals rather than long posts with just text about nutrition advice. Second, I get so many questions from so many people just in everyday life and a lot of them are the same. My goal is to have a library of Q&As to refer people to when they are just looking for a quick answer. 

Making the vision a reality really just required getting out of my own way. I kept putting it off because I wanted it to be perfect. I was looking into buying an expensive camera and microphone until finally I just said screw it. I did it on my iPhone and edited it in iMovie. It’s low budge right now, but it gets the job done.  

Social media has definitely been helpful in getting my message out, but I try not to rely on it 100% of the time. Terms and conditions are always changing and I can never know for sure who’s seeing what, if anything. I’ll always post, but I definitely put a lot more work into my weekly email updates.

One of the most challenging things right now is balancing a full-time job with continuing to grow my website and coaching practice. Also, for me, it’s always been challenging to just focus on one thing. The cool thing about my business model is that there are endless possibilities for what and how I can offer my services. Sometimes I have to remind myself to just pick one thing to focus on, and follow through without getting distracted. 

I prevent burnout by trying to always get at least seven hours of sleep, and now that the weather is so nice I’ve been walking to work most days of the week. Having that extra dose of sunshine and some extra time to myself before and after work really helps keep my energy levels up. Plus, if I don’t get to a yoga class that day, then at least I walked three miles! 

Well the thing I always tell myself is, this is not supposed to be easy. For me, the biggest game changer has just been a shift in perspective. I used to always find myself thinking these limiting thoughts about how I could never be successful doing this type of work, and I would keep my vision and my goals to myself because I was so caught up in perfecting every tiny detail before starting. 

I find now that I really believe that I can do this and accept that it's never going to be perfect, I’m so much more open and comfortable talking about the work I do. As an introvert, I work really hard to put myself out there. The exciting part is it always pays off in the form of tiny victories in my business: a new subscriber, a new client or a teaching opportunity.

My advice? If you’re passionate about something, scream it from the rooftops as loud as you can. Just get it out there in any way you know how. 

Compassion is a big one. Food is a really sacred subject and it’s actually really hard for people—including myself sometimes—to talk about it honestly. Approaching clients from a place of non-judgment always comes first.

I think having a niche can serve you well in this field. I’m definitely in ‘the zone’ when I’m working with clients on weight loss and/or digestive disorders. But that’s really because my sessions are so focused on digging deep and really helping people find the root of their issue so that they can set real goals that they can actually achieve and maintain. With my “Your Health 101” session, people usually end up leaving with goals that were never even on their radar, and most of the time they are so much simpler than what they originally had in mind.

My mom would always repeat this Henry Ford quote growing up: “Whether you think you can—or you think you can’t—you’re right.” I try to remind myself of this when I’m having one of my “I just can’t” days. 

On the other hand, my dad always says things like “Don’t eat the yellow snow.” He’s a bit more practical.

There’s this quote by Robert Louis Stevenson that I came across when I was building my website: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you sow.”

I’ve really been trying to remind myself of that and take this new path in my career day by day by planting a lot of seeds! I’m hoping the harvest is being able to work on my coaching business full-time within the next year.